Heisman Thoughts

The Heisman Memorial Trophy, without a doubt the most hyped and over-analyzed individual award in all of sports, will be given out tonight. TV networks love the Heisman trophy because it gives them hours upon hours of material to babble about instead of doing something productive, which is why I've grown to dislike the Heisman Trophy over the years. The more they talk about it every single damn week, the less I seem to enjoy it.

The three finalists this year are all Quarterbacks for three of the most visible powerhouse teams in the country. Last year's winner, Tim Tebow, will try to become the second ever two time winner, and I think he's got a better chance than most people realize. The betting odds show Sam Bradford as the favorite, followed by Colt McCoy and then Tebow. McCoy and Bradford have had the advantage of ABC covering the Big-12 South every Saturday night for what seems like the last 2 months, and that's just the kind of national media exposure which would make either one a shoo-in. But you can have only one shoo-in, and adding a second makes both into shoo-outs.

The problem the other two contenders have is that they are basically the same candidate, ie the star QB of a Big-12 South power. Tebow, of course, is basically the same except that he's the star QB of an SEC power, and like many elections before it this one will have as much to do with geography as with worthiness.

In order to win the Heisman, typically you need full support from the voters in your geographic region plus a smattering of support from other pockets of the country. Tim Tebow's advantage is that he is basically the one and only shining star from the SEC. All the SEC voters will vote for him first, and anyone looking in at the SEC will vote for him before anyone else in the Conference. Colt and Bradford, however, will be fighting over the same base of voters and they're likely to split them. Adding to their disadvantage is the fact that the Big-12 has a number of other big name stars, including Graham Harrell, Mike Crabtree, Zac Robinson and Chase Daniel, who won't win but will pick away even more votes from Bradford and/or McCoy.

Maybe I'll be proven wrong, but it seems pretty obvious how the votes will split. If Bradford does win, it will basically be a result of his performance against over matched Missouri in the Big-12 Championship game, the last big game in the voters minds. If that's the case I'd be especially pissed if I were a Texas fan, since they had as much of a claim to be in that game as Oklahoma (more so in my opinion). So not only has the BCS screwed Texas out of a division title, Big-12 Title, and trip to the National Championship game, but it also screwed Colt McCoy out of a chance to win the Heisman which was instead afforded to Bradford.