Louisville Football: How is the Heisman Trophy voting is determined?

We take a look at how the Heisman Trophy voting works and what that means for Louisville football’s Lamar Jackson.

It was a very ugly loss for the Louisville football team on the road in Houston. Louisville was heavily favored in this game, but they came out very flat and the Cougars dominated them. It was never close and the Cardinals should be bummed. They didn’t deserve to win that game after they way they played in the first half.

With that being said, we have talked about how that performance would hurt Lamar Jackson in the Heisman race? I believe that he is still the heavy favorite, but we now have to take a close look at what they will be looking for in a winner.

Let’s take a look at how the voting works, according to the Heisman Trophy’s official website:

1. Electronic ballots will go out to 870 media members plus 58 former winners on Nov. 21. They have until Monday, Dec. 5, at 5 p.m. ET to return their ballots to Deloitte, the accounting firm that tabulates the votes.

2. Most of the voters are media members who cover college football on a regular basis. They are divided up into six regions of 145 members each: The Northeast, Southwest, South, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest and Far West. In addition, the 58 living Heisman winners are spread out within the various regions.

3. Voters can select three players on their ballot. A first place vote allots 3 points to the player selected, second place gets 2 points and third place gets 1 point. Any college football player at any level who is eligible to play college football as determined by the NCAA can be included on the ballot.

4. An additional vote, the vote from the fans, is tabulated via the Nissan Heisman House, making for a grand total of 929 potential ballots.

5. The Heisman finalists — a number that generally ranges from three to six players — will be announced the evening of Dec. 5 on ESPN.

6. The winner of the Heisman Trophy will be announced on Saturday, Dec. 10, also on ESPN.

I don’t think there is any doubt that Lamar Jackson is going to be the favorite whenever he heads to the ceremony on December 10th. I also don’t see the majority of the people voting putting anyone other than Lamar Jackson in the 1st spot on their ballots.

Again, it is not panic time for Lamar Jackson about his precious Heisman Trophy, but this loss should make some of the people voting question whether he deserves the award or not.

With that being said, if any one of them watched this game against Houston, they would understand that this loss was on the offensive line and not Lamar Jackson.