Heisman Trophy is the Most Overrated Award in Sports

We all follow the chase that captures the hearts and minds of college football fans everywhere. The chase for the Heisman Memorial Trophy is an obsession for many college football fans that simply goes too far. Who plays the best one week may not be the stud the next week.

Who knows how the winner of the legendary trophy is decided anyways. The trophy supposedly goes to the best player in college football during the season. So what constitutes the best player? Is the best player the one with the best stats? If so, what happens if those stats come against low quality opponents? So does the best player have to be the player with the best stat lines who plays for a major college program?

It's even been stated that the Heisman Memorial Trophy is college football's version of the Most Valuable Player Award. So if stats and quality of opponent aren't the major factor in determining the winner, maybe is the most valuable player to their team. But just because a team values one player so highly, should they be the winner? Who knows?

Some have also let it be know that they feel the winner should come from the best teams in college football. But even then some would argue that "the best player on the best team" strategy only proves that the major programs are great football teams. Who's to say that the best college football player doesn't reside at a smaller school?

The possibilities are endless. No one truly knows how to select the Heisman Trophy winner. In the end, sportswriters have traditionally failed in recent memory to select the best players. Take, for example, the long list of Heisman trophy winners that have failed miserably at the professional level: Jason White, Eric Crouch, Ron Dayne, Danny Wuerffel, Chris Weinke, and Rashaan Salaam to name a few. If these players truly were the best players in college football, then one could easily argue that they should have been among the best at the professional level. Instead, many of the players in recent memory have failed to even make an impact at the NFL level.

With the confusion over how to vote for the Heisman Trophy, many sportswriters ultimately fail to select the "best" player in college football. The recent failure of many Heisman winners in the NFL proves that the Trophy that is the most sought after award in college spots is vastly overrated and regarded too highly. The winner of the Heisman shouldn't mean as much to players as it currently does. Sportswriters and analysts should spotlight the award as the end-all to the best player debate in college football. Instead, we should all let the players be the best in their own right and not add the analyst spin. Ultimately, we as fans and analysts have turned one of college football's greatest traditions into a popularity contest and ruined the aura of the Heisman trophy.