Heisman Vote Needs to Be Fixed
The Heisman vote has produced many winners who later looked flawed. This could happen to Sam Bradford as well.
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College football always has controversy. Another controversy was started on December 13th, 2008 when Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford was selected as this year’s Heisman trophy winner. He had a great year, but his trophy might be tainted just a month later.
Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford has had a great year. But, his trophy might have a question mark attached to it after the Sooners play the Florida Gators. If Oklahoma gets walloped like the Sooners did against LSU or like Ohio State did against The Gators then Sam Bradford’s Heisman might not be respected years from now. Whenever I think of Gino Toretta the Heisman winner from the early 90’s, I think of Alabama upsetting the mighty Hurricanes in the Sugar Bowl that year to steal the national championship. Toretta didn’t look like a Heisman winner that day. I also think about Oklahoma’s Jason White getting beaten up in his last two games of the season against Kansas State and LSU. It sure makes him stick out when they show past Heisman winners. I also can’t help but think the Heisman voters looked bad selecting Troy Smith as a Heisman winner and then watching the Gators smash the Buckeyes into submission. There is a common theme in these games. The theme is overrated quarterbacks playing against SEC defenses.
No league has defense like the SEC. This causes the offensive stars in the SEC to have lower stats and lowers their chances to win the Heisman. Other conferences have weaker defenses and allow good offensive players to look Heisman-like even though they might not be able to get first team all-SEC at the same time. I do not see much difference between Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford and Georgia’s Matthew Stafford. Both will be picked fairly high in the NFL draft if they leave early. Yet Bradford won the Heisman and Stafford was just second team All-SEC behind Tim Tebow. I feel that if they switched Bradford and Stafford this year, Stafford would being doing the Heisman pose somewhere.
I suggest that the Heisman award should be given a week after the Bowl season ends. This would stop some Heisman winners form getting embarrassed when they make it to the bowl season against other leagues. I also argue that voters should be aware about voting for quarterbacks that don’t play in either the SEC or at USC. These quarterbacks seem more likely to be deserving compared to such unworthy Members like Eric Crouch, Troy Smith, Jason White, Gino Toretta, and Chris Weinke. If the award was handed after the bowl season then maybe we could get more deserving winners. Sam Bradford might be added to the list of players who gave away their Heisman respectability against an SEC defense in a big time bowl game.
