Should Tim Tebow Get A Vote?
8 Dec
First things first, this is not an attack against Tim Tebow for a Heisman vote, despite my allegiance as a Florida State Seminole.
Instead, I choose to use the only sophomore to win a Heisman as my backdrop for today’s argument. When an underclassman wins the award and comes back for another season, as is the case with Tebow, and has been for familiar names like Jason White, Matt Leinart, Archie Griffin (him a two-time winner) and Ty Detmer, the question is, who do they vote for?
There have been ten winners that have returned back to school, and for those who have voted, so far they have alleged that they did not vote for themselves. QB Jason White, who won in 2003, and returned in 2004, said he voted for Adrian Peterson, who at the time was the first freshman to make the trophy presentation.
QB Matt Leinart, who beat out White in 2004, turned around and claimed to vote for his fellow running back Reggie Bush, who won in it 2005. Now, are these votes true? I don’t know, but what I do know is we are starting to see younger athletes be more competitive early and get themselves into the Heisman voting. When Adrian Peterson was 2nd as a freshman, and Larry Fitzgerald was 2nd in 2003 as a sophomore, it ushered in an era of young athletes winning awards. Tebow’s victory gives him an opportunity to win it three straight times, something no person has ever done (Griffin is the only two-time winner in Heisman history). Would he sacrifice the integrity of the award to go down in history?
So far, Tebow has gone on the record and said right now, he would vote for QB Colt McCoy of Texas, who has comparable numbers to Tebow this year. But McCoy himself is a junior, and a victory would allow him a shot to be a two-time winner if he returned next year. Other names up for the award in 2008? QB Sam Bradford from Oklahoma, who’s a sophomore, WR Michael Crabtree from Texas Tech, another sophomore, and QB Graham Harrell, also of Texas Tech, who is the only senior in this bunch.
Not to attack the integrity of any of these players, but eventually there will be an athlete who wins an award, and then feels they did enough to win again. It’s natural for a human being to feel that he is the better competitor than his neighbor.
So I’ve done plenty of complaining, and now the ultimate question is, how do we prevent it from happening? Now, yes, there has yet to be a vote close enough to really distinguish one person’s vote (the closest was in 1985 when Bo Jackson beat out Chuck Long by 45 points), and each first place vote is worth only 3 points, but with 15 votes being the closest (assuming all were 1st place votes), the line will be crossed eventually.
The only way to prevent it from being crossed? Remove the opportunity for underclassmen to use their Heisman vote until after they graduate from college or they enter the NFL. The Heisman is the only trophy to allow former winners to vote for the new winner, so they can change the rules as they see fit. By refusing to allow underclassmen the right to vote until they are no longer part of the NCAA, we avoid coming to the day when a player wins by one or two votes, and those underclassmen that previously won and are looking for more immortal glory are thwarted in their effort. Until then, speculation will continue to arise.
by Ryan Liss "The Sportmeister"
www.sportmeisters.com
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