Welcome back to another thrilling episode of THE MEAT GRINDER, your weekly does of High School Football in Connecticut.

Twenty-four teams are gone, 24 remain. We've reached Semifinal Sunday in the race for the six 2024 state championships!

After a rainy Thanksgiving we were treated to snow, glorious and beautiful snow on Tuesday's CIAC quarterfinals (unless you were along the Connecticut shoreline) as we moved into playoff football in December.

And, much like the weather, the first round of the playoffs brought us some surprises. Like two No. 8 seeds -- WCA and Notre Dame-West Haven -- knocking off a pair of No. 1 seeds -- Capital Prep and Naugatuck, respectively. The SCC and the FCIAC thrived while the Pequot -- all six teams -- was sent home for the holidays.

It wasn't all rosy, however. Northwest United announced it would forfeit its Class MM against No. 1 Windsor, perhaps a foretelling of the mis-matched blowouts that pervaded the quarterfinal rounds, which got us thinking (again) about how we can improve these here playoff rankings.

But, when the snow cleared, the semifinals were, at last, set with four rematches of regular-season games, including BOTH Class LL semis, and another playoff rematch between Hand and St. Joseph.

Join host Sean Patrick Bowley, who, once again, is joined by Scott Ericson and Dave Stewart to break down the games and -- of course -- make their picks to reach next weekend's championships.

Dave Stewart is leading the staff pick'ems contest with SPB a game back!

It's a jam-packed show again, so join us, won't you?

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