Four young quarterbacks standing in fancy suits, smiling to the camera, while the defensive monsters and trench anchors sit at home watching on TV after putting on a first-round draft performance in the season. This has become the reality of college football: the Heisman Trophy award has become a popularity trophy rather than a performance award.
Let's all be honest: unless you touch the football on every single snap, you might as well not even think about the award show in December. The Heisman club has quietly become an award for signal-callers yearly. A lockdown SEC cornerback who completely shuts down one side of the field or an edge rusher who faces a constant double team can change the math of the game far more than a quarterback throwing a play-action play. Still, defensive stars are treated as a secondary thought in this prestigious honor.
The numbers behind this selection process have given us shocking results over the years. Take Will Anderson Jr., who, when playing with Alabama in 2021, put on a show with 17.5 sacks, leading the country in the most competitive conference in college football. He won the Bronko Nagurski Trophy, was named SEC Defensive Player of the Year, and wasn't even named to the finalist list.
The fact that in the past 29 years there have been only two defensive player winners, with Travis Hunter in 2024 and Charles Woodson in 1997, proves the deep flaw of this competition. Even when Hunter won, playing snaps as a wide receiver alongside his cornerback role still shows a player needs offensive plays to get attention from voters.
I think it's time for the award's meaning to be changed to an offensive MVP style like the NFL has and stop pretending the winners of this award represent the best player in college football. The voters should start respecting the players in the trenches of the SEC and their grueling schedules. If this doesn't happen, the Heisman will stay a predictable, corporate highlight-show popularity contest.
