Hawks had two wins against top 10 opponents and Whiting's best win was against #31. I'm sure if Whiting beats Wolf in the dual. The spot is probably his. If you look at it logically it gave them a better chance of getting an at-large if needed. Cause there was 6 of the top 12 wrestlers in Big XII (Keckeisen, Plott, Berge, Wolf, Feldkamp,Hawks/Whiting) and only five allocations and five at-large bids. Hawks almost assured them of a spot at Nationals if they needed an at-large. Whiting probably would have. But It was not guaranteed
As far as wrestle offs, I mean everyone of their matches were OT matches. We all know if you wrestle someone all the time. It is not really indicative of who the better wrestler is (Not saying which one is better).
I am sad to see him in the portal. But at the end of the day. I am sure it was a tough choice for the coaching staff.