The inscription on the Heisman Trophy reads “The Outstanding College Football Player in the United States 2008″

Hmmm….2008 and United States I understand. Maybe this will help:

out·stand·ing, adj.
1. Standing out among others of its kind; prominent.
2. Superior to others of its kind; distinguished.
3. Projecting upward or outward; standing out.

There lies the crux of the problem with the Heisman Trophy. The word “outstanding” lends itself to a high degree of subjectivity. Does outstanding mean “best at his position”? “Best pro prospect”? “Most inspirational”? “Most Valuable Player”? The truth is voters tend to fit the definition to whichever candidate they like the best in years like this where there isn’t a clear-cut front-runner.

More to the point, and what has weakened the significance of the Heisman Trophy in the last two decades, is that the trophy has been functionally defined as going to the QB or RB on one of the best couple teams. The media drives most of this and there’s not a single thing that can be done to stop it. Unfortunately the media, particularly ESPN, will continue to lessen the significance of the Heisman in the future.

I define the Heisman as a combination of “most outstanding” and “most valuable to their team” on a team that’s delivered outstanding results. Again- very subjective. I also apply the standard of “how would the team have performed without player ‘X’?” All that boils down for me to the following Heisman ballot:

1.) Colt McCoy- Texas
2.) Sam Bradford- Oklahoma
3.) Graham Harrell - Texas Tech

It’s an easy choice for McCoy in my opinion. He’s 1st in the nation in passing completion percentage, 3rd in passer rating, he’s the leading rusher on his team, and without him, Texas would easily have had three losses this year.

First, vs. Tebow- McCoy has a far greater completion percentage, threw for almost 1,000 more yards than Tebow, rushed for more yards than Tebow and scored two more total touchdowns. If Tebow didn’t win last year and Florida wasn’t playing in the national championship, Tebow wouldn’t be a finalist. Florida is loaded on offense and defense, and while Tebow is a very unique and gifted college player, the Gators would still be at or near the top without him, especially in a down year like this year in the SEC.

McCoy vs. Bradford is a little trickier. Bradford’s numbers are sick, video-game sick. However, Bradford hasn’t been the running threat McCoy has and Bradford is surrounded by better players. Consider that 3 of the 6 Big XII first-team Offensive Linemen are Sooners, only one plays for Texas. Oklahoma placed 7 players on the first-team list vs. only the one for Texas.

Regarding Graham Harrell, he certainly has risen above the “system quarterback” stigma, and the yards he’s compiled are impressive. However, Harrell has 568 passing attempts vs. 442 for Bradford and only 375 attempts for McCoy. Scale that back and his yards end up lower than McCoy’s, and without the yards on the ground (Harrell had -58 yards rushing).

I do think it sucks that Harrell didn’t get invited to the Heisman ceremony. I tend to agree with Mike Leach who when asked about his QB Graham Harrell not being invited to the Heisman ceremony, said:

“If Graham is not invited to the Heisman, they ought to quit giving out the award,” Leach said. “It is a shameless example of politics ruling over performance. The other guys are deserving, but he has earned a place alongside them.”

The Heisman people will say the players invited to the ceremony are determined by “the natural breaking point” of how the votes turned out. So that means Harrell didn’t get enough votes to be in the conversation, which is just silly. By any standard, Harrell’s performance and importance to his team should demand at least a 3rd place vote.

No matter. The irony is the votes for McCoy and Bradford will probably cancel each other out and Tebow will likely win for the 2nd year in a row.

You’re welcome.

The rules are simple for the Ocho:

**8-team playoff
**Top 8 BCS teams are in (no nonsense about conference champions or provisions for Notre Dame or non-BCS teams)
**Lower-ranked team plays at higher-ranked for first round (8 plays at 1)
**Semifinals played between 1st week of December and Christmas
**Championship game played as it is today (except with the certainty of getting the two best teams)
**All other bowls remain as they are today, including the remaining BCS bowl games

The arguments used against a playoff are weak, yet repeated frequently. Here are the three most frequently cited myths:

“A playoff would create too much interruption to the academic calendar”

It’s laughable that university presidents even drop this with a straight face, what with twelve regular season games, conference championships, and games added on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights. If they really do care though, my proposal works the total six extra games into the existing scheduling framework.

“A playoff would lessen the importance of the regular season”

First of all, the simple numbers of the college football regular season refute this theory. There are ~30 regular season games in college basketball vs. only 12 in college football. That ratio alone implies you can lose three times as many games in basketball as you can in football. Also, the real reason the regular season doesn’t matter in college basketball is because half of the teams get into the tournament. By keeping a college football playoff at 8 teams, you retain the razor thin margin of error necessary to retain the importance of the regular season.

“The bowls make too much money to change anything”

This is absurd. The money generated by a playoff on top of the existing bowl game structure would be exponentially greater than the total revenue today. It’s simple math.

Getting back to the Ocho…

My top 8 are unchanged this week after the limited action last Saturday. If we had a playoff, this would be the first round match ups:

# 8 Utah @ # 1 Florida
# 7 Texas Tech @ # 2 Oklahoma
# 6 Penn State @ # 3 Texas
# 5 Alabama @ # 4 USC