Heisman Trophy Lacks Juice Because of the Field & Social Media, Not Lack of Media Hype
By Jason McIntyre
They claimed it took away the Saturday night drama.
"So we were asked to keep our votes quiet until after the ceremony, and told that failure to do so could result in our voting privileges being revoked. You also wrote letters to a few media members who wrote about it anyway, attaching the columns in question, as if it were a cease-and-desist letter. Which it basically was. … Well, guess what: There’s still no drama this year, and there’s even less hype. In all due respect, members of the Heisman Trust, your secrecy rule has backfired. The voters keeping silent didn’t help last year’s Heisman show: The TV ratings were the ceremony’s lowest in three years. We’ll see about Saturday night."
Yes, there’s less media hype, but that’s not because writers have been muzzled.
Several factors are at play:
1) Least sexy race in years. Todd Gurley, the best player in college football, was suspended, then injured. Last year’s winner, Jameis Winston, struggled all season, even though the Seminoles haven’t lost. And there’s a dearth of quality QBs across the country. Since the last four winners (and 7 of 8 overall) have been QBs … Marcus Mariota in a landslide.
2) Social media hasn’t made the Heisman presentation a must-watch in years. You can get the results and margin of victory within minutes of the announcement on your phone. TV ratings will continue to plunge.
3) Three of the last four winners were essentially 1st-year players who were not on the Heisman radar at the start of the season. Cam Newton came from JUCO (by way of Florida), and Johnny Manziel and Jameis Winston were redshirt freshman who hadn’t thrown a college pass. Debating freshmen or drama Kings is fun.. Blowouts are not.
4) The last receiver to win the award? Desmond Howard in 1991. He ran back punts, too. Excelled at it. Sorry, Amari Cooper. You’re the best receiver in college football, but all you do is catch passes so you never stood a chance.
5) Melvin Gordon had a brilliant season. I thought he’d regress with turnover in Madison, but I learned a lesson: Never underestimate the bad 8-man fronts in the Big 10. But 76 yards in the Big 10 title game when his Badgers lost 59-0?
Next year could be a decent year for the Trophy. I’ve already targeted a few young players who could make a run at it: Clemson QB Deshaun Watson, FSU RB Dalvin Cook, Mississippi WR Laquon Treadwell, the Ohio State QB (JT Barrett, Braxton Miller or Cardale Jones), Georgia RB Nick Chubb and if you’re looking for the media to rally around a defensive player, keep an eye on Scooby Wright of Arizona (cool name, tackling machine, Wildcats will contend again in the Pac-12).
Lastly: Loosen up, Heisman Trust. The crossover between the number of people who visit obscure Heisman Trophy websites and the number of people who follow college football is probably less than 10%.