Paul Hornung winning over Johnny Majors was the first royal screw job. "He was awarded the Heisman over future Tennessee and Pitt head coach Johnny Majors and Tom McDonald of Oklahoma, who actually garnered more first place votes" and "is the only Heisman winner to win the trophy while playing for a losing team."
https://www.heisman.com/heisman-winners/paul-hornung/I don't think ABC/ESPN wanted Woodson to win over Peyton. In fact, it probably would have been a better story for them if Peyton had won. I think they wanted there to be uncertainty as to who would win it since they aired the Heisman presentation. It was better for ratings. And they aired the Big 10 games. So they pumped up Woodson. He was a great player. But he wasn't as responsible for his team's success as Peyton was.
And I will never believe otherwise.
I'm going to push back quite a bit on "ABC/ESPN didn't actually want Woodson to win".
1. ABC had the Rose Bowl contract. Woodson was going to be in the Rose Bowl.
2. Heisman trophy winner was considered to add quite a bit to the Rose Bowl allure (i.e., ratings).
3. CBS had the SEC contract.
4. ABC had the Big 10 contract.
5. I read an article after the season, that said ABC Sports had been in the red all season, but the Rose Bowl ratings were off the chart and put them back into the black. Boom! No need to say anything else.
Per 5, I would love to find that article in an archive somewhere, but have been unable to do so. It spoke volumes.
"Follow the money".