Football awards, bowl games grow unabated
Jack Ham has four Super Bowl rings and is a member of both the college and pro football halls of fame. What he doesn't have is a Butkus or Bednarik award, or any other individual college trophy sitting in his trophy case.
Current Penn State linebacker Paul Posluszny had two Bednariks and one Butkus.
When Ham played at Penn State, those awards -- the Butkus to recognize the nation's outstanding linebacker, and the Bednarik, the best defensive player -- didn't exist. In 1970, Ham's senior season, he had to settle for first-team All-America recognition. There were just a handful of player awards. The Heisman Trophy, Walter Camp and Maxwell awards were almost exclusively the province of offensive players. The Outland Trophy existed, but it was and remains limited to interior offensive or defensive linemen.
"One year Mike Reid won the Maxwell as a defensive tackle," Ham said, referring to a teammate's breakthrough in 1969. "But that was unheard of. I think it's good we have more of the awards for other positions now.
"But it's kind of like the bowls: You hope there don't get to be too many."
Even as Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke anguishes over inflation in the economy, big-time college football embraces the concept of inflation.
More player awards, more bowl games and more rankings -- with more teams, all are an accepted way of life for Division I-A teams.
That relatively compact list of individual awards from 1970 has swelled to the point where the National College Football Awards Association (NCFAA) was formed in 1997, according to the organization's Web site, to "protect, preserve and enhance the integrity, influence and prestige of college football's various awards."
Awards ceremonies were held across the country the past week, including an avalanche on Thursday night, televised live on ESPN. The Heisman was announced Saturday and the Lott today.
"I do think there are too many awards out there," said Steve Richardson, who handles publicity for the Outland Trophy and sits on the board of the NCFAA. "It's more difficult to start an award now and have it gain recognition. The landscape is so crowded. And there's really no need. Everything seems to be covered, at least twice in some cases."
That doesn't stop organizations from deciding to create another award. Unlike bowls, which must gain NCAA certification, awards are largely ungoverned.
"There's nothing anybody can do to keep people from announcing they want to present an award," said W. Lynne Draper, executive director of the NCFAA, which includes 21 awards for players, teams, coaches and even one for assistant coaches, under its umbrella.
Other awards covet the NCFAA imprimatur, but the organization has decided not to accept any award not in existence prior to Dec. 31, 2000.
One of the relative newcomers on the award scene is the Lott Trophy, established in 2004. Although it seems to duplicate the Bednarik and Nagurski awards, which seek to identify the top defensive player, the Lott organizers stress that it also factors in integrity, maturity, performance, academics, community and tenacity.
Penn State football brand manager Guido D'Elia admitted he'd never heard of the award until Lions linebacker Posluszny became a serious contender.
"When they contacted us about that, they said they were looking for a guy with a good QPA in a tough major, who participates in everything, is a team leader, and I'm saying 'Yeah, yeah, Why don't you just name it after Paul?' " D'Elia said.
Despite his promotional leanings, D'Elia sees overkill in the awards.
"You wonder what's next," he said. "Best backup⢠Best return man⢠Best possession receiver⢠Best fade route receiver⢠Best cut-blocker?
"Maybe best equipment manager?"
Richardson said the NCFAA approached CoSIDA, the association of college sports information directors, about acting as a crimp on awards, but the group wanted no part of it.
"Schools like a lot of awards," Richardson said. "It helps them promote their players."
What coaches don't like is when those players, or the coaches themselves, need to spend too much time away from school near final exams, or away from bowl preparations while making the awards rounds.
And there are more teams concerned with bowls than ever before. This season, there are 32 bowls, hosted by 27 different metropolitan areas. That's up from 11 bowls in 1970, 15 in 1980, 19 in 1990 and 25 in 2000. Along the way, the national polls swelled from ranking the Top 20 before 1992, to the Top 25 from then to the present.
Critics see 32 bowl games and cry "excess." That means 64 of 119 Division I-A schools, more than one-half, will play in a bowl game this season.
"I'm sure it will be talked about at the NCAA spring meetings; where do we draw the line?" said Bruce Binkowski of the Football Bowl Association. "Obviously, we draw the line at some point because you would not have enough qualifying teams and so forth."
Currently, a team playing 12 games needs to win 6 to be eligible for a bowl.
Binkowski, who is executive director of the Poinsettia Bowl, which kicks off the bowl season Dec. 19 and the Holiday Bowl on Dec. 28, both in San Diego, stressed that the bowl slate is not yet excessive.
"When the comment is made that there are too many bowls, the best way I could respond is who are bowl games for?" Binkowski said. "They're for student athletes. To be given the opportunity to play a postseason game, even if it may not be for the national championship or what might be called a high-level game, to the teams that participate, it is a big deal."
It's a big deal to the host areas, too. Binkowski estimated a $43 million economic benefit to San Diego from the two games last season.
The Phoenix area hosts three postseason games this bowl season. The Insight Bowl is played Dec. 29 at Tempe; the Fiesta Bowl, Jan. 1 at Glendale; and the BCS title game, Jan. 8 at Glendale.
"We're finding that three isn't too many," said Shawn Schoeffler, who ordinarily organizes just the Fiesta and Insight bowls. "We'd hoped that the BCS game wouldn't overshadow the other two, and it hasn't. We're getting just as many calls about tickets and travel from teams in the other games as the BCS game."
Just rewards
Major college football player awards and their first year presented:
Heisman, most outstanding player, 1935
Maxwell, outstanding player, 1937
Outland Trophy, best interior offensive or defensive lineman, 1946
Walter Camp, top college football player, 1967
Lombardi, top offensive or defensive lineman or linebacker, 1970
O'Brien, best quarterback, 1981
Butkus, outstanding linebacker, 1985
Thorpe, outstanding defensive back, 1986
Unitas Golden Arm, outstanding senior quarterback, 1987
Walker, best running back, 1990
Groza, top placekicker, 1992
Nagurski, outstanding defensive player, 1993
Bednarik, best defensive player, 1993
Biletnikoff, outstanding wide receiver, 1994
Mackey, top tight end, 2000
Rimington, outstanding center, 2000
Guy, nation's top punter, 2000
Hendricks, top defensive end, 2002
Lott Trophy, outstanding defensive player, 2004
Multiple bowls
Metropolitan areas with more than one bowl game this season
San Diego: Poinsettia (Dec. 19) and Holiday (Dec. 28)
New Orleans: New Orleans (Dec. 22) and Sugar (Jan. 3)
Orlando: Champ Sports (Dec. 29) and Capital One (Jan. 1)
Phoenix: Insight (Tempe, Dec. 29; Fiesta (Glendale, Jan. 1); and BCS title game (Glendale, Jan. 8)
