The Flawed Election of 2009

The myth of the "Sophomore Slump" is officially terminated in College Football. When Crimson Tide Running Back Mark Ingram won the Heisman Trophy Saturday Night, he joined Sam Bradford and Tim Tebow as the third straight sophomore to win possibly the biggest individual award in all of sports. The crew that Ingram edged out: Longhorn QB Colt McCoy, Stanford Running Back Toby Gerhart, former Heisman winner Tim Tebow, and Nebraska defensive linemen Ndaumukong Suh, all seniors. While I was happy for the young Ingram as he accepted the award, I am still having trouble seeing how Toby Gerhart didn't win it. Is the Heisman even about stats anymore? If so, Gerhart was the clear cut winner. But that is when it hit me that the Heisman is barely about stats at all, but is merely a political election. If Tim Tebow and the Florida Gators beat Alabama in the SEC Championship, Toby Gerhart would be joining Jim Plunkett as the second Heisman winner in Stanford history. Instead, Ingram and the Crimson Tide are heading to the BCS Championship next month, and are bringing a Heisman Trophy with them, well deserved or not.

It wasn't only several second place votes that separated Stanford's Toby Gerhart and Mark Ingram, but also 11 touchdowns and 200 total yards in favor of Gerhart. The question is no longer why didn't Gerhart win, Because that is slowly becoming unanswerable. But rather why did Ingram win? And there is only one answer, he plays for Alabama. Say we swapped the two players, put Ingram on Stanford and Gerhart on Bama. Same stats, results, and team BCS positions. Gerhart wins in a heartbeat, and I guarantee you that not one Heisman voter would deny that, and that is the problem with the system. The Heisman Trophy is supposed to be handed out to the player who has the best season, regardless of where his team stands at the end of the year.

If Alabama gets defeated by Florida in the SEC Championship, Ingram probably wouldn't of finished top two, and Tebow would have most likely slid into a top spot in the voting, but Gerhart would have won. It is not Gerhart's fault that Stanford didn't have a good a year as Bama, but in the Pac 10 you can certainly not down play the numbers he put up. He did everything he could to help the Cardinal win this season, and played a lot of good defenses, where he played his best. This wasn't a case like Colt Brennan a few years back where it could be argued that he played in a very easy WCC and wasn't challenged all season. Gerhart was challenged, and when he was he came through. Rushing for 26 touchdowns and 1,7000 yards is no joke anywhere, especially in the Pacific 10 Conference.

What I am doing, is not downplaying what Mark Ingram did this year, but simply showing the flaws in the Heisman system. There is no doubt that Toby Gerhart should have won the award with flying colors. No doubt. But hey, congratulations to Ingram, he utilized a bunch of specialists who thought he was "2nd place" and is the one taking home the hardware, touche NCAA.

JD