Should the Heisman vote be delayed until after the Playoff?
College football’s national championship trophy is handed out at the end of the postseason to its most deserving recipient. But the sport’s most prestigious individual award is not.
The Heisman Trophy is given out before any bowl games are played, games which are included in players’ season statistics and are watched by millions.
This year’s Heisman went to Alabama’s Derrick Henry on Dec. 12, nearly three weeks before Christian McCaffrey — first runner-up and the NCAA single-season all-purpose yardage record — broke the Rose Bowl’s all-purpose yardage mark, with 368 yards and two touchdowns in Stanford’s dismantling of Iowa.
Would that performance have changed Heisman voters’ minds — had they been able to vote later? If Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson, the third-highest vote-getter, thoroughly outplays Henry during the College Football Playoff championship Monday night?
These questions all essentially ask the same thing: Why isn’t this award given out after every single game is played?
“We should vote right after all the bowls are done,” FOX Sports columnist and Heisman voter Bruce Feldman said. “If the stats count, why shouldn’t they factor in? It seems odd that it’s (leaving out) the most important games of the year.”
ESPN’s Brett McMurphy, also a Heisman voter, said he also thinks voting should be after the end of the national championship, as does Yahoo Sports’ Pat Forde.
“I would prefer voting for the Heisman after all precincts are accounted for, after all games are played,” Forde said. “That would be ideal. … There’s a chance to play two more games after (the voting if a player is participating in the four-team Playoff) now, too. I guess I’ve always felt this way, though. I’d rather vote on guys after seeing their entire body of work.”
Consider last season: Would Ohio State running back Ezekiel Elliott’s string of three 200-yard rushing games and eight combined touchdowns to close out Ohio State’s national championship run have landed him among the Heisman finalists if the vote were held mid-January?
Or what about 2005, when USC's Reggie Bush won the trophy in December. Vince Young’s performance in the national championship game — he threw for 267 yards to go along with 19 carries for 200 yards and three rushing touchdowns — would likely have impacted the vote had it been held after the postseason.
“The fact that the (Heisman) doesn’t vote after the bowls dates back to an outdated era where there were very few bowl games and the stats didn’t count,” FOX Sports columnist and Heisman voter Stewart Mandel said. “At this point, everybody plays a bowl game. Stats count. And it’s a rare opportunity to see the guys play against the best teams from other parts of the country. We saw Christian McCaffrey tear up a Big Ten defense. We’ll see how Deshaun Watson does against Alabama’s defense.
“I feel like I would make a much more informed decision at that point.”
In the electronic voting era, Heisman votes are distributed later than in the past, but there is occasional criticism that some voters cast their ballots prior to conference championship weekend. Heisman Trophy coordinator Tim Henning said the number of such votes is "miniscule."
“An overwhelmingly large majority of our voters wait until after that last weekend before voting,” he said.
Mandel said to him, the biggest downside of a later vote would be that the Heisman winner each season would likely be someone who won the national championship due to recency bias. McMurphy’s concern would be the timing of the announcement and award ceremony; he likes how it fits in with the other awards being handed out in early December.
The question of when the Heisman should be awarded was posed to both finalists present here at the Playoff championship, Henry and Watson. Neither said it mattered to them, and it’s based on others’ opinions anyway. But Clemson coach Dabo Swinney took a stance, saying it probably should be after all the games are played. “That’s probably the better way to do it,” Swinney said.
Because all Heisman voting is done electronically, it’s theoretically possible to tally votes quickly after the national championship game each year. But, despite the support from voters, don’t expect this idea to gain much traction.
Henning said decisions to make changes to the Heisman process are determined by the Heisman Trust, a nine-member committee.
“The Heisman Trust prides itself on our tradition,” Henning told Paste BN Sports this week. “And one of our traditions has always been the awarding of the trophy prior to the bowl season. I do not anticipate the Heisman Trust changing that any time in the near future.”