Heisman Vote Breakdown: A Look at The 105 Who Left Cam Newton Off The Ballot

What do we know about the 105 voters who left Cam Newton off the Heisman ballot? In a perfect world the ballots of all 105 would be public. While that’s not the case as of now, we do have a small subset of that 105 from which we might get a glimpse into the demographics of the anti-Cam vote. To my knowledge, six sportswriters (heretofore referred to as “the public six”) have openly declared that they submitted a ballot sans Newton: Mike Bianchi, Orlando Sentinel; Gene Frenette, Florida Times Union; David Whitley, AOL Fanhouse; Kyle Tucker, Virginian-Pilot; Bob Molinaro, Virginian-Pilot; and Philadelphia-based writer Michael Bradley. A seventh writer, Seth Emerson of the Macon Telegraph, indicated that he abstained in order to avoid casting a vote for Newton.

Worth noting here, perhaps, is the fact that everyone on this list is white. Five of the seven are based in the south. Of course this doesn’t mean that all 105 who stiff-armed Newton were southern whites, but our small sample does hint at a trend in that direction.

(If there is an African-American voter out there who left Cam off the ballot, please, by all means declare yourself.)

Meantime, while we don’t have the data to construct a racial breakdown of the entire 105 as compared to the overall population of Heisman voters, we can get some small semblance of such a comparison in regards to ballot content itself. Whether the ballots of the anti-Cam crew have any more “integrity” than the average ballot is a matter of debate. If the public six are any indication, however, their ballots were a tad whiter.

Looking at the overall Heisman voting population we see that Newton came in first followed by Andrew Luck of Stanford and LaMichael James of Oregon. In other words, one white guy on the typical Heisman ballot. Looking at the ballots of five anti-Cam voters (Michael Bradley, to my knowledge, did not disclose who he voted for), we see that all five had two white players in their top three and four of the five put a white player at the top of their ballot.

The only writer in the group to give his vote to an African-American player was Frenette, who voted for Oklahoma State wide receiver Justin Blackmon. He followed up with Moore second and Luck third. Tucker and Molinaro both had Luck first and Moore second or third. Tucker had LaMichael James third (the only James vote on any of the declared anti-Cam ballots) while Molinaro had Auburn defensive lineman Nick Fairley second. Bianchi seemed inclined to associate “integrity” with whiteness as well, placing Moore at the top of his ballot.

And then there was Whitley who, apparently confusing the Heisman Trophy with the Boy Scout of the Year Award, had Stanford’s Owen Marecic (white) number one, followed by Colorado offensive lineman Nate Solder (white) and Texas’ Sam Acho (African-American). Again, in keeping with the trend, white guy number one and two white guys overall.

Does any of this mean that there was an element of racial bias in the voting of the 105? That the word “integrity” has been applied as a euphemism, either conscious or subconscious, for the word “white?”

That where there’s smoke there must be fire?

Honestly?

I don’t know.

While I have snippets of information that imply very indirectly that this may be the case, I don’t have nearly enough to know the truth.

Speculation is well and good, but I don't make final judgements without all the facts.

And that’s precisely why, if I had the chance, I’d vote Cam Newton for Heisman.