Heisman committee give me a ballot because I can do better.

First, I want to apologize for no College Preview this week. Between all the tryptophan and crappy NFL football, it’s been a tough holiday. Then you figure in my Black Friday shopping adventure with a chick fight in Old Navy included, and I feel blessed to even be here today. But I’ve watched or recorded every college game so far, and will get ‘em all in today and still have my snap judgments up as usual. Can’t miss rivalry week when teams play for a big ax or a sack of flour or whatever else. But that’s not what I am here to talk about this morning.

Well the interweb is all abuzz with talk of two Heisman frontrunners and according to these “pundits”, one has eliminated themselves from the award, and the other won it.

Who I am talking about are Colt McCoy, QB Texas and Mark Ingram, RB Alabama. These experts(and I use the term loosely) have put McCoy on top because he rolled up huge stats on a crappy Texas A&M defense, and Mark Ingram has fallen off the Earth because he had a bad game in the Iron Bowl. First off, the idea that one bad game can cost a player the Heisman is asinine. And the idea that Ingram is the only Heisman frontrunner to have a bad game, is even more absurd.

I think a big part of this is about the voters. 145 sports writers per each of the 6 regions and the past winners. It sort of reminds me of the people who vote in the human polls for college football. Most sports writers cover their region, conference, state, or even team, and rarely deviate far from that at all. So for example if you are a sports writer in Seattle Washington, you’ve probably followed Toby Gerhart a lot closer than you have Colt McCoy. That will influence your vote. They do the same thing with the college football polls. They vote for the teams they follow, because let’s be honest, they pay very little attention to other teams.

So, we put these guys in charge of deciding the most prestigious award in college sports? I’d rather let Mike Tyson be my financial planner. The problem is, drawing a paycheck as a sports guy doesn’t give you any sort of skill in selecting the most outstanding player in the country. In fact it might make you far less qualified at it, because of your bias and narrow focus.

Colt McCoy’s signature bad game

10/17 against Oklahoma-21/39 for 127 yards with 1 td and 1 int and 14 rushes for 33 yards, 27 of which came on one carry.

Tim Tebow’s signature bad game

10/24 against Mississippi State-12/22 for 127 yards no touchdowns and 2 ints and 22 carries for 88 yards and 1 td

Mark Ingram’s signature bad game

11/27 against Auburn-16 carries for 30 yards and 3 catches for 21 yards

Toby Gerhart’s signature bad game

9/12 against Wake Forest-17 carries for 82 yards and 1 catch for 12 yards

Kellen Moore’s signature bad game

11/20 versus Utah State-15/29 for 233 yards and 1 td

CJ Spiller’s signature bad game

Seriously, do I have to list them all? Seriously. Do I have that kind of time?

I suppose if you are going to follow the flawed mentality of a bad game eliminates you from the running, the two who should be invited are Toby Gerhart, and Kellen Moore, and leave the rest at home. Seriously, anyone who’s going to eliminate Mark Ingram for what happened against Auburn today but keep guys like CJ Spiller and Tim Tebow on their ballots are misinformed. And if you have this mentality and happen to have a vote in the Heisman, you make me sad for the award and what it’s supposed to me.

But to be frank, I doubt most of the 870 media votes are that informed at all. And that’s part of why the Heisman doesn’t matter like it used to. Being outstanding has nothing to do with NFL potential or even statistics. This isn’t baseball. It’s about being outstanding. Anyone who is hammering Ingram for yesterday’s game against Auburn needs to go back and re-watch what he did against Mississippi or South Carolina.

Oh, and to all the media talking heads, if you want to take Ingram off your ballot for his bad game, that’s fine with me, so long as you hold all the contenders to the same standard. You dump Tebow and McCoy and Spiller also. If you can’t be fair and balanced, than you really shouldn’t be a journalist at all should you? Applying one set of rules to one contender and not another? Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

Do I wish I had a ballot? You bet, but not because I’d help decide the Heisman, but because I’d feel better knowing I voted for who I thought did most deserve the award, regardless of who won. Instead of being a sheep, and just following the flock, I’d make an informed decision and not be reactionary to the rest of the media or a single game.

Oh, and for the record, I predicted Colt McCoy to win the Heisman, before the season began and it would be largely due to a media love in, looking to make up for him not winning last year, and it is starting to look like I am exactly right.

I’m not talking to any particular media talking heads, because you know who you are. You are the ones you had Jacory Harris in New York one week, and Jeremiah Masoli another, and you are the ones still carrying a torch for CJ Spiller even though he’s not only had bad games, but he missed the teams most important game of the year, against Georgia Tech with an injury. 

So, My appeal to Heisman voters everywhere is just make a smart choice.  And you are going to make a dumb choice, at least be consistent with it.  

Last Edited: 11/28/2009