Tim Tebow Is the only three-time Heisman finalist in the award's history.
Reviewing The History And Protocol Of Heisman Finalists
We are days away from learning who the 2025 Heisman Trophy finalists will be, so we figured it’s a good time for our annual refresher on what makes a Heisman finalist.
We’ll get a bit into the weeds on this for anyone new to the Heisman process. Apologies if some of this is old hat to readers.
1. What is a Heisman finalist? — A Heisman finalist is an active college football player who receives an invitation to attend the annual Heisman ceremony held in New York City each December. Whether that player shows up or not, he is considered a finalist.
2. How long have Heisman finalists been around? — For almost half of the award’s tenure. Prior to 1982, only the winner of the Heisman was invited to New York, so there was no such thing as a ‘Heisman finalist’. Starting in 1982, multiple candidates were invited to take part in the live TV show that accompanied the announcement of the winner. Herschel Walker, John Elway and Eric Dickerson were the first Heisman finalists, though Elway did not attend that year’s event.
3. How many finalists are there every year? — Beginning in 2021, the Heisman Trophy Trust began officially inviting four finalists to New York City for the Heisman Trophy Weekend. In previous years, it varied. There were always least three finalists invited in a given year. The total did rise to as high as eight invitees in 1989 (though only four actually attended the ceremony). Six finalists was the most to ever attend a ceremony.
4. We hear something unique happened in 1989? — This was a bit of an anomaly that occurred before all the standards for selecting finalists were sorted out. The eventual winner, Andre Ware, was not able to attend the ceremony because he had a game that day. He was on a live satellite feed from Houston when he was announced as the winner of the trophy. Anthony Thompson of Indiana, Major Harris of West Virginia, Tony Rice of Notre Dame and Darian Hagan of Colorado were all in attendance in New York, while Dee Dowis of Air Force, Emmitt Smith of Florida and Blair Thomas of Penn State did not attend the ceremony. Technically, however, they were all finalists.
5. How are the finalists determined? — As of 2021, the four invited Heisman finalists are determined by the top four individuals that receive the most votes.
Prior to 2021, the determined finalists were one of the most misunderstood parts of the Heisman process. You would often hear media or fans complain that a certain player was snubbed by not being invited to the Heisman ceremony. But the finalists were not determined arbitrarily. Starting from the understanding that there was always a minimum of three finalists, whether or not more will be invited was determined by how close the fourth-place finisher’s point total is to that of the third place finisher’s, how close the fifth-place finisher’s is to that of the fourth-place finisher’s and so on.
In the 2008 Heisman vote, for instance, Florida’s Tim Tebow finished third with 1,575 points. The fourth-place finisher, Graham Harrell of Texas Tech, totaled 213 points. Because of the huge gap between those totals, Harrell was not invited to the ceremony, which featured just three finalists. In 2010, Kellen Moore’s fourth place finish of 635 points brought him much closer to LaMichael James’ third-place finish of 916, so Moore was included as one of the four finalists. The fifth-place finisher in 2010, Justin Blackmon of Oklahoma State, had just 105 points. There was a clear demarcation of support between him and Moore, so the finalists were capped at four.
In other words, the closeness of the point totals determined the final number of finalists prior to 2021. Where major gaps exist, that’s where you got a cutoff.
6. When are the finalists announced? — The finalists are announced on the Monday prior to the televised Heisman Trophy Ceremony.
7. You got any fun facts about Heisman finalists? — We sure do! Alabama and Oklahoma are tied for the most Heisman finalists with 11 apiece while Ohio State and Miami each have had 10. Florida has had eight, USC seven and BYU, Stanford, Michigan and Oregon have had five each.
8. Tell me more, please — 61 different schools have had at least one finalist, including 22 schools with just one and 16 who have sent two finalists to New York.
9. Anything else that could give me an edge in bar trivia? — Florida’s Tim Tebow is the only three-time Heisman finalist and there have been an additional 21 players who have been two-time finalists. C.J. Stroud is the most recent 2-time finalist (2021-22).
10. Any hints about next week’s finalists? — Sorry, no, but return here Monday night (Dec. 8) to find out!
