I'm going to try and explain in as few words as possible what's happened. Basically half of the championship field fished with the same partner throughout the entire FJ series. All of these folks get to use six poles -- no issue there. The other half of the field decided to enjoy fishing with multiple partners throughout the season INSTEAD of just one. This worked out well for them because they qualified but they have recently become aware that they don't have a qualified partner to join them in their championship effort because according to the rules that were discussed and posted several months ago their other partners didn't fish 3 FJ tournaments. These are grown men that made multiple decisions to put themselves in this situation. Speck and I had nothing to do with it. Also, this isn't a case were they had a death in the family or illness or anything else that is both understandable and unfortunate. These were six separate, intentional, concious decisons that took place over a six month period. Two of these people are on the Tournament Committee and as such they have the authority to go in and change the rules to change their situation by throwing in words like QUALIFIED BOATS instead of participants and referring to the "spirit" of the series instead of what was openly discussed, carefully typed and posted months ago. I think this is wrong. These are good folks and my friends and I can't believe I am in the awkward position of pleading for an honest contest between fellow qualifed sportsmen that adheares to the rules they developed originally. It seems to me the easiest and appropriate thing to do would be to use this season as a learning experience and play the hand their delt. They can either partner up with another single qualifier or compete by themselves but don't change the rules to allow someone to compete that hasn't fished in our series. What are your thoughts?