Monday, December 14, 2009

Thoughts on the Heisman

The Heisman Trophy has, to me, lost some of its prestige. It is supposed to be given to the season's most outstanding player. But it is frequently given to the running back or quarterback on the top ranked team.

Team performance has a considerable effect on Heisman voting, but it is an individual award. This makes no sense.

Also the voting is divided by region, and the Heisman Voting regulations stipulate: For Heisman voting purposes, the nation is divided into six regions—each of which get 145 votes. Put another way, each region gets exactly 16.67 percent of the votes. However, each region does not constitute an even one-sixth of the population. Three regions (Far West, Midwest, and Mid-Atlantic) have larger populations than that – and three have less (Northeast, South, and Southwest). In fact, the Far West has the greatest population at 21.1% of the country and the Northeast has the least – 11.9%.

To me this is a strange way to vote and decide a winner. I also disagree with the fact that it almost always goes to a quarterback or runningback and never to a defensive or offensive lineman. The award would be much more prestigious if it were spread evenly throughout the positions, simply trying to highlight the most outstanding players regardless of stats.

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