First of all, it was somewhat clear that Colt McCoy was out of the running for the Heisman after he wet the bed against Nebraska. McCoy and Texas were literally one second away from out-choking Nebraska in the Big 12 Championship, and Colt did little if nothing to lift his team to victory. All season the liberal east coast media has been stuffing McCoy down our throats along with Tim Tebow as the "obvious" Heisman favorite. Apparently feasting on one of the most overrated conferences in the NCAA, where nobody but Texas has anything resembling a defense, is the biggest factor int he Heisman vote. Luckily the east coast bias failed this year, and the talking heads didn't get their man... or so it seems.
The real injustice lies in the snub of the real obvious pick; Toby Gerhart. Gerhart lead all FBS teams in rushing (1736 yards) and TD's (26) with one less game than Ingram. To pour more salt on the wound, Gerhart won the Doak Walker Award for the best HB of 2009. This would make Gerhart an obvious pick over Mark Ingram, since Ingram is also a HB. How another HB could be better is beyond me, but I'm not a part of the liberal conspiracy holding down the west coast.
The next issue is VORP (Value Over Replacement Player), which is used in baseball but I'm going to use it in a non-statistical analysis. If Ingram were not at Alabama, would they still be 13-0 and playing for the National Title? Now consider Stanfurd, without Gerhart would the still be 8-4? Do they beat Oregon, USC, or an overrated Notre dame without their only offensive weapon? Do they even go 4-8? I think there is no doubt a Stanfurd team without Gerhart is a completely different squad, but the Heisman voters didn't seem to take this into consideration.
You know what, maybe it was this photo that swayed the voters.The final problem, and deathblow to Gerhart's chances, is the conspiracy to televise Heisman "favorites" and relegate challengers to regional television. The media has fallen all over itself this season to make sure people get to see Tebow, McCoy, and Ingram as much as possible. Stanfurd is a smaller program, lacking tradition and class, so the media chose to ignore Gerhart accept for instances when they couldn't ignore his accomplishments. This is made obvious by how close the final vote was, as if Gerhart can go home feeling happy he was a loser by the smallest margin in history, and things might have turned out differently if they hadn't forced Alabama/Florida/Texas games on regions that are key to the vote.
I doubt 2010 will be much different, but with Kellen Moore, LaMichael James, and Jacquizz Rodgers out there maybe the west coast will have a chance next year. Sadly Mark Ingram is a sophmore, so much like Tim Tebow we will no doubt be treated to 1-2 more years of being beaten over the head by his "obvious" dominance.
I agree with your analysis. Toby G. clearly should have won the Heisman this year. But it's not just East Coast bias. ESPN is a big part of the problem, too.
ReplyDeleteThis year ESPN signed a big contract with the BCS to televise the BCS bowls for the next several years. ESPN has a vested interest in the BCS system.
Florida, Texas, Alabama and a few other schools play the BCS system for all it's worth. These schools schedule cupcake OOC games to run up their stats and avoid losses. This strategy guarantees these schools a shot each year at a BCS bowl, and often also a shot at getting to the so-called BCS national championship game.
ESPN plays a major part in this by hyping these particular schools, their conferences (particularly the SEC and the Big 12) and their QB's and RB's. That hype helps the BCS, helps these particular schools/conferences and their players, and also helps ESPN. It's an insiders game -- one hand washes the other.
The unfortunate result is we get the same suspects every year receiving the post-season awards, and playing in the BCS bowls. Anyone who watched the last week of the regular season and saw Tim Tebow and Colt McCoy play on national TV knows that neither of these guys was a top five QB this year (much less the top player in the country). Yet Tebow and McCoy were again in the finals for the Heisman. As for Ingram, he's a talented runner, but best player in college this year? Give me a break. At Stanford, he wouldn't even have been the starter -- he would definitely have played behind Toby G.