The Great Farce

Listening to my local sports talk station this morning, I heard a discussion about the Heisman trophy and specifically about some of the votes that have already been tallied. The jist of the talk on the air was about some pretty questionable votes. After hearing more about some of the voters, where they are from, and how they voted, I couldn't help but write about it.

The Heisman Trophy is the second biggest joke in college football. Second only to the BCS.

The Heisman is coveted as the top individual trophy in college football and is supposed to be awarded to "the outstanding college football player in the United States". Now, I'm no English major or anything but I didn't see the words "offensive player" or "quarterback" in that sentence. Did you? The award should go to the best overall player, but the only way a defensive player even gets consideration is if he returns kicks and/or plays offense too. Sure, people will shrug that off and say that there are many awards for individual players that are given by position. That is entirely correct, except these people conveniently forget that there is an award for running backs and multiple awards for quarterbacks.

So the question is...when did the Heisman become an award for offensive skill positions and why do they still advertise it as the award for the most outstanding player?

Now, about those questionable votes. These merely add to the deception of the Heisman. Did you know that there are over 900 voters and that there is no process for restricting their vote? They can literally put anyone on their ballot that they choose. They don't have to vote for first, second, and third either. I did my research at a site called http://www.stiffarmtrophy.com where they actually do the unthinkable and contact as many voters as possible to track the race for the trophy. They are very good at what they do.

Reviewing their results, you will find that pretty much all of the past Heisman winners from USC have voted solely for USC players. Lindell White is on most of them. Dwayne Jarrett is on some. You won't find Vince Young on ANY of them. Now, if you truly voting your conscience...and completely removing my argument that defensive players should be considered...how in the world can you NOT include Vince Young as one of the three best players in college football this year? In order to help insure that your guy takes the trophy, that's how. All of the USC guys I mentioned have Bush first and Young is nowhere to be found.

But it doesn't begin and end with those guys. One of my very own guys...a true Sooner has done something similar. Billy Sims has voted Vince Young first and not voted for anyone else. For me, this is no better than what the USC guys have done. It doesn't stop there. You'll see quite a few extremely questionable votes in that list. Guys getting voted on that really have no business in a discussion about the "most outstanding player".

What ought to be a celebration of the best in college football has turned into a narrowly focused look at the two or three offensive skill position players from some of the powerhouse programs in the NCAA. Outrageously biased voting by past winners and media members who vote only for the guys in their region have further diluted the greatness of what should be the best trophy in college football.