NHTIGER

"A sportswriter who covers the Patriots said he expects New England to pick Marvin Harrison first then Jaden Daniels. They have two first round picks."

The Patriots DO NOT have two first round picks in the 2024 NFL draft.

Most Boston area media, and many fans, are clamoring for Drake Maye as the Pats are looking (as of now) at likely having the 2nd pick. Maye got a lot of preseason hype but I'm not sold on him at all. His passer rating for this past season was 35th (we know who was first). The pre-season Top 3 in virtually all media were Caleb Williams, Maye and Harrison, and the locals up this way, who don't follow college football that much, just go with the popular names. So they debate among themselves and never mention anyone else other than those three guys.

Not choosing 1st, 2nd and 3rd place means the ballot is disqualified, per the Heisman page.

"10% of voters didn't have Jayden top 4"

Voters only could choose 1st, 2nd and 3rd.

Has The Advocate's Sheldon Mickles revealed his ballot yet?

"If Harrison is #4 than that means people voted before the Ohio St Michigan game"

That game was played on November 25th.

The Heisman ballots were not distributed until two days later, on November 27th.

An FYI, Lee Corso is the 2023 Heisman Sectional Representative for the South Region. He is responsible for the appointment of the Heisman state representatives for AL, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, and TN. Those state reps select the Heisman voters from within their respective states.

"So if he wins Best QB in the country, and the Heisman race is between 2 QB's, that should be a dead giveaway right?"

Problem is in 2022, Max Duggan won this award and QB Caleb Williams won the Heisman. In 2021, QB Kenny Pickett won this award and QB Bryce Young won the Heisman. In 2020, Mack Jones won this award and only placed 3rd for the Heisman, while QB Trevor Lawrence placed 2nd for the Heisman. In 2018, Gardner Minshew won this award and finished 5th in the Heisman, behind four QB's.

Joe B. in 2019 went against the grain; let's hope JD does the same this year.

Caleb Williams had an easy win in last year's Heisman.

153 voters didn't even list him on their ballots.

Even when Joe B. had that crushing Heisman win in 2019, 41 voters left him off their ballots completely.

Neither race was affected by this, not even close.

However, in a neck-and-neck contest like this year could very well be, ballot omissions could determine the winner.

Because the winner is determined by total points and not 1st place votes, a tight finish could easily come down to 3rd place votes and/or being left off some ballots.

Last year, despite a relatively easy win for Caleb Williams (544 1st place votes to Max Duggan's 188), there were 153 ballots that did not list Williams at all. Was he really not considered one of the top three candidates by 153 voters? Not likely. There could be any number of reasons for the omission. Duggan was left off 241 ballots. Williams won by a margin of 611 points.

But what about a year where the vote is expected to be quite bit closer, like this year? (Or 2009, when Ingram got only 5 more 1st place votes and beat Toby Gerhart by 28 points.) Ingram was left off an astounding 290 ballots while still eking out a close win. Gerhart was left off 297 ballots - which means that if just 29 (exactly 10%) of the non-Gerhart voters had given him 3rd place votes, he would have won the Heisman!

The point is that if Nix has a sub-standard game this week, either he or Daniels could get the most 1st place votes and easily lose the Heisman.
How many voters out there will omit one of them from their ballot, for whatever reason? Or vote for both, but list one of them as their 3rd choice, resulting in a 2-point spread for that voter?

Longshot, sure. Possible, very, in an anticipated very close race. IF LSU fans could vote, how many would list JD 1st and omit Nix, to help JD? If Oregon fans could vote, how many would list Nix 1st, and leave Daniels off entirely?

In the end, it could be just about the points. Just like, well, a football game.

"Many voters have decided to give their vote to either Bo Nix or Michael Penix. "


The ballots are being distributed today. The four finalists who will get the trip to NYC will be announced next Monday.

It's not simply a matter of who a voter gives his first place vote. Because it's a points system, each voter's 2nd and 3rd place choice may prove to be pivotal this year when a close race is possible. But maybe even more critical, which of the most likely top 4 (Daniels, Nix, Penix, Harrison, Jr.) is which player(s) will be left off their top 3 choices entirely, which means 0 points.

Since every vote has to list 3 players, those voters who have a strong preference for either Daniels or Nix could easily omit the other player from their choices and , in effect, amplify their vote for whichever one they do want to win.