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http://network.yardbarker.com/college_football/article_external/backyard/top_10_all_time_heisman_trophy_snubs/8527294?refmod=backyard

Um . . . first of all, they don't mention Woodson over Manning, which in my mind is at minimum a top 5 snub. Then they say that Hornung, who earned #1 as the least deserving winner, resulted in a snub of Jim Brown-- not Johnny Majors, who should have been the winner that year.

Some of the mentions are good, but as a UT fan it's easy to spot the glaring omissions.

Hornung over Majors (or anyone else) was obviously a big one. But there isn't a snub that can come close to topping Woodson over Manning.

You go back and look at Woodson's numbers and he shouldn't have even been in the Heisman hunt that year. The media (ESPN, primarily) decided that they didn't want a Southern quarterback to win two years in a row, so they manufactured a candidate. Leaf would've been a decent candidate, but he was also a QB. Moss would've been a good candidate, but then they found this guy who was the perfect anti-Manning: Northerner instead of Southerner, defensive player instead of offensive player, black instead of white... Then he managed to have a couple of good games at the best possible time (Ohio State), and suddenly the world believed he was the best player in college football. I remember hearing Michigan fans saying the day of the announcement that if Woodson didn't win, they were going to boycott the Heisman. WTH? The guy wasn't even on the Heisman radar at the beginning of the season.

That was the year that the Heisman lost its meaning to me. I couldn't name more than 3 or 4 Heisman winners since then. In fact, I'm not entirely sure who won it last year, though I would assume that it was Cam Newton. That award means absolutely nothing to me now.

Cam Newton did win it last year. The SEC has dominated the award recently with Tebow, Newton, and Ingram winning 3 out of the last 5.

I think that the Manning snub was more of a ratings thing. Manning was the pre-season odds-on favorite. That doesn't make for interest and suspense. It doesn't provide good ratings for the Heisman show. ESPN/ABC needed someone they could hype to create interest. With Woodson, they not only got that but someone from a team in a conference which they televised. Double win for them.

I really don't think they cared who won the award. In fact, Manning winning it might have been better for them. But they got the interest and saved the ratings.

This from a link at the top of the same page...http://network.yardbarker.com/college_football/article_external/backyard/top_10_all_time_heisman_trophy_snubs/8527294?refmod=backyard

The thing that kills me about Woodson's numbers that year was Terry Fair with UT had basically the same numbers in return yardage by punts and INT's and you didn't hear his name hyped for the award!

And Champ Bailey had double the year in '98 that Woodson had in '97 and NOTHING.