Heisman Race May End in Photo Finish

Heisman Race May End in Photo Finish - Handicapping the Heisman contest. So many players are in the running for the Heisman this year, it's possible the winner won't have the most first-place votes, our expert says. It could be that close. t appears director Garry Marshall, with the romantic comedy “New Year’s Eve” coming out just 22 months after 2010’s forgettable “Valentine’s Day,” has a real stranglehold on the monster, star-studded ensemble casts in Hollywood these days.

For his next film, he might want to consider “Heisman 2011.”

Never before have there been so many names considered legitimate contenders this close to the award ceremony.

In a typical Heisman year, there usually are two to three candidates with realistic shots by the end of November at taking home the trophy. By the second week in December, it’s usually down to two, with one clear favorite.

Last year, in a rare exception in which the Heisman winner was decided by early October, Cam Newton garnered 781 of a possible 886 first-place votes — good for the 11th-biggest margin of victory in Heisman Trust history.

In 2009, the closest Heisman race of all time, Mark Ingram edged Stanford running back Toby Gerhart by just 22 points. It was 2008, however, that marked the most peculiar Heisman finish in recent memory. That year Sam Bradford won the Heisman based on overall points, but it was Tim Tebow, the third-place finisher, who garnered the most first-place votes (309 to 300).

Those races were two- and three-men marathons with sprints to the finish.

Here we are, days away from the 2011 ceremony, and not only is there no clear-cut favorite, but there also aren’t two or three players who’ve clearly separated themselves from the rest of the pack. It’s quite possible the 2011 Heisman winner won’t have the most first-place votes or even the second-most first place votes. It could be that close.

With five worthy finalists and a few guys not invited to New York City garnering more than their fair share of votes, this one is set to be not only the closest, but also the deepest, Heisman finish of all-time.

Chris Huston, publisher of the popular HeismanPundit.com web site, says: “It will be up there with some of the more wide-open races of all-time. As in 2009, there are multiple candidates who seemingly have a legitimate shot to win, but I think we'll have an educated guess on the winner come ceremony time.”

Perhaps the Heisman race most like this one was the great campaign of 1989. In the days leading up to the ceremony at the Downtown Athletic Club, Sports Illustrated printed a cover that read “Five for Heisman,” with the names and images of Major Harris, Tony Rice, Emmitt Smith, Anthony Thompson and Andre Ware splashed across newsstands everywhere.

Ware won the Heisman, but it wasn’t as close as the SI scribes likely imagined it’d be. In the balloting, Houston QB Ware amassed 1,073 points, drawing 242 first-place votes (worth 3 points apiece), 132 second-place votes (2 points each) and 83 third-place votes (1 point). Runner-up Thompson secured 70 fewer first-place votes. Emmitt Smith didn’t even finish in the top five. That year, like this one, wasn’t a one- or two-horse race — it was a crowded field of all types of thoroughbreds.

The 2002 campaign was the most recent hotly contested five-horse race as Carson Palmer edged Brad Banks, Larry Johnson, Willis McGahee and Ken Dorsey. Though Palmer won rather handily, all five finalists earned more than 640 points — impressive showings across the board.

Ballots were due Monday afternoon at 5 p.m., and an hour afterward, five men were announced as finalists by the Heisman Trust. Here are what they’ve got working in their favor and against them, and what the guys in Vegas feel:

via: foxsports