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If Heisman Trophy winners have any bearing on the strength of a conference, the SEC’s recent domination of college football is more than just the product of a media bias.
The SEC claims six of the last 25 Heisman winners, tying it with the Big 12 for the most by any one conference. Its four since the turn of the century are also tied with the Big 12 for the national lead, and the SEC is the only conference to boast multiple Heisman winners in the last five years.
But prior to the ’90s, the SEC’s run on Heisman winners was non-existent. In the first 55 years of the award, the SEC claimed only six winners, the same number it has claimed among the last 25 winners. And prior to Herschel Walker and Bo Jackson’s victories in the 1980s, the SEC claimed only four Heisman winners from 1935-81. That’s four in a span of more than 45 years; for context’s sake, the SEC has won four Heismans in just the last 10 years alone.
Because so many schools remained independent prior to the mid-1980s, it was rare for one conference to claim more than three Heisman winners in any 10-year period. But for what it’s worth, many of those award winners from independent programs hailed from one of three schools: Notre Dame, Army or Navy.
The other conferences with the most Heisman winners in the early years of the award include the Big Ten, which claimed seven of the first 20 winners, and the Ivy League, which claimed four of the first 17 Heisman Trophies.
As the 20th century progressed, it was the Big 8 (later the Big 12) and the Pac-8 (later the Pac-10 and now the Pac-12) that began emerging as prominent Heisman producers, and now it is the SEC and Big 12 who have cornered the Heisman market, which is ironic considering the SEC has become a title-winning cash cow while the Big 12 has shrunk, lacks a conference title game as well as its own network.
Take a look at Heisman winners throughout history, sorted by conference and decade to give an idea of which leagues were the most dominant in which eras of college football history.
1930s
| Conference | No. of winners | Name/School/Year |
|---|---|---|
| Ivy League | 2 | Larry Kelley (Yale 1936), Clint Frank (Yale 1937) |
| Southwest | 1 | Davey O’Brien (TCU 1938) |
| Big Ten | 1 | Nile Kinnick (Iowa 1939) |
| Other | 1 | Jay Berwanger (Chicago 1935) |
1940s
| Conference | No. of winners | Name/School/Year |
|---|---|---|
| Independents | 5 | Angelo Bertelli (Notre Dame 1943), Don Blanchard (Army 1945), Glenn Davis (Army 1946), Johnny Lujack (Notre Dame 1947), Leon Hart (Notre Dame 1949) |
| Big Ten | 3 | Tom Harmon (Michigan 1940), Bruce Smith (Minnesota 1941), Les Hovarth (Ohio State 1944) |
| SEC | 1 | Frank Sinkwich (Georgia 1942) |
| Southwest | 1 | Doak Walker (SMU 1949) |
1950s
| Conference | No. of winners | Name/School/Year |
|---|---|---|
| Independents | 3 | Johnny Lattner (Notre Dame 1953), Paul Hornung (Notre Dame 1956), Pete Dawkins (Army 1958) |
| Big Ten | 3 | Vic Janowicz (Ohio State 1950), Alan Ameche (Wisconsin 1954), Howard Cassady (Ohio State 1955) |
| Big 7 | 1 | Billy Vessels (Oklahoma 1952) |
| Ivy League | 1 | Dick Kazmaier (Princeton 1951) |
| SEC | 1 | Billy Cannon (LSU 1959) |
| Southwest | 1 | John David Crow (Texas A&M 1957) |
1960s
| Conference | No. of winners | Name/School/Year |
|---|---|---|
| Independents | 5 | Joe Bellino (Navy 1960), Ernie Davis (Syracuse 1961), Terry Baker (Oregon State 1962), Roger Stauback (Navy 1963), Joe Huarte (Notre Dame 1964) |
| Pac 8 | 3 | Mike Garrett (USC 1965), Gary Beban (UCLA 1967), O.J. Simpson (USC 1968) |
| SEC | 1 | Steve Spurrier (Florida 1966) |
| Big 8 | 1 | Steve Owens (Oklahoma 1969) |
1970s
| Conference | No. of winners | Name/School/Year |
|---|---|---|
| Big Ten | 3 | John Cappaletti (Penn State 1973), Archie Griffin (Ohio State 1974 AND 1975) |
| Pac 10 | 2 | Jim Plunkett (Stanford 1970), Charles White (USC 1979) |
| Big 8 | 2 | Johnny Rodgers (Nebraska 1972), Billy Sims (Oklahoma 1978) |
| SEC | 1 | Pat Sullivan (Auburn 1971) |
| Independents | 1 | Tony Dorsett (Pittsburgh 1976) |
| Southwest | 1 | Earl Campbell (Texas 1977) |
1980s
| Conference | No. of winners | Name/School/Year |
|---|---|---|
| Independents | 4 | George Rogers (South Carolina 1980), Doug Flutie (Boston College 1984), Vinny Testaverde (1986), Tim Brown (Notre Dame 1987) |
| SEC | 2 | Herschel Walker (Georgia 1982), Bo Jackson (Auburn 1985) |
| Big 8 | 2 | Mike Rozier (Nebraska 1983), Barry Sanders (Oklahoma State 1988) |
| Pac 10 | 1 | Marcus Allen (USC 1981) |
| Southwest | 1 | Andre Ware (Houston 1989) |
1990s
| Conference | No. of winners | Name/School/Year |
|---|---|---|
| Big Ten | 4 | Desmond Howard (Michigan 1991), Eddie George (Ohio State 1995), Charles Woodson (Michigan 1997), Ron Dayne (Wisconsin 1999) |
| Big 12 | 2 | Rashaan Salaam (Colorado 1994), Ricky Williams (Texas 1998) |
| SEC | 1 | Danny Wuerffel (Florida 1996) |
| Big East | 1 | Gino Toretta (Miami 1992) |
| ACC | 1 | Charlie Ward (Florida State 1993) |
| Independents | 1 | Ty Detmer (BYU 1990) |
2000s
| Conference | No. of winners | Name/School/Year |
|---|---|---|
| Big 12 | 3 | Eric Crouch (Nebraska 2001), Jason White (Oklahoma 2003), Sam Bradford (Oklahoma 2008) |
| SEC | 2 | Tim Tebow (Florida 2007), Mark Ingram (Alabama 2009) |
| Pac 10 | 2 | Carson Palmer (USC 2002), Matt Leinart (USC 2004) |
| ACC | 1 | Chris Weinke (Florida State 2000) |
| Big Ten | 1 | Troy Smith (Ohio State 2006) |
2010s
| Conference | No. of winners | Name/School/Year |
|---|---|---|
| SEC | 2 | Cam Newton (Auburn 2010), Johnny Manziel (Texas A&M 2012) |
| ACC | 1 | Jameis Winston (Florida State 2013) |
| Big 12 | 1 | Robert Griffin III (Baylor 2011) |
| Pac 12 | 1 | Marcus Mariota (Oregon 2014) |
A former newspaper reporter who has roamed the southeastern United States for years covering football and eating way too many barbecue ribs, if there is such a thing.
