Get ready for the Wyoming high school football all-decade team tournament

How would a team of Wyoming high school football players from the 1970s stack up against a team of players from the 2010s?

We’ll never know for sure.

But we can try, if we get a little creative about it.

Welcome to the Wyoming high school football all-decade tournament — an eight-team, 12-game cornucopia of possibilities to figure out which decade just might have been the state’s best.

The three-round bracket will include teams from each of the six most recent decades — the 2010s, 2000s, 1990s, 1980s, 1970s and 1960s. Players from the 1950s and 1940s will be combined into one team, as will players from the 1930s and before.

Games will be simulated using customized rosters on EA Sports NCAA Football 25 on a PS5. Live streams and commentary of the games will be show on my YouTube channel. Dates and times are to be announced, but be on the lookout for an early August start.

Teams and rosters will be introduced on this site in the coming days. Each team will have rosters of 53 players with the following breakdowns:

• Offense: Two quarterbacks, five running backs, five wide receivers, three tight ends, nine offensive linemen.
• Defense: Seven defensive linemen, seven linebackers, eight defensive backs, two rovers.
• Special teams: One kicker, one punter, one return specialist.
• Wild cards: Two “athletes” who could show up anywhere on the field.

With 53 players over eight teams, that’s 424 players in total.

Yeah, it’s an undertaking. But it’s been fun to go down the rabbit holes. I’ve already dug into the histories of probably close to 800 players to try to find the right mix of 424. Rosters are being chosen using a mix of both a player’s performance in high school as well as their performance afterward. For example, how can the team of the 1990s not include Cheyenne East’s Troy Dumas, who starred at Nebraska before playing in the NFL but was never actually an all-state selection? Or how can the team of the 1980s not include Pinedale’s John Burrough, who was a star at Wyoming and played several seasons (and in a Super Bowl) in the NFL but, again, was never an all-state pick? I am trying to find the right balance between high school success and collegiate/pro success, and often I will use the post-high-school success to help make decisions. That said, not every member of every roster has to have played collegiately.

I’m also trying to get a good mix of big-school, medium-school and small-school athletes, as well as a good mix of players from all parts of the state. That said, I am still in the process of finalizing the selections. If you have some players that you think are worth consideration for the team, please leave me a comment below, or tag wyoming-football.com on the Facebook page or on Twitter.

All that said, I hope you enjoy the selections and enjoy the tournament. I can’t wait to share it with you!

–patrick