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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Pete Fiutak

College Football Hall Of Fame 2023 Ballot: Ranking The Candidates

The 2023 College Football Hall of Fame ballot has been released highlighted by Tim Tebow, Julius Peppers, Reggie Bush, and other legends to choose from.


Ranking All Players On The 2023 Hall of Fame Ballot

The National Football Foundation (NFF) & College Hall of Fame announced today the names on the 2023 ballot for induction into the College Football Hall of Fame, including 80 players and seven coaches from the Football Bowl Subdivision.

A Hall of Famer should be obvious, and it’s not just about name recognition. A player’s popularity doesn’t mean he had all-timer of an impact on the sport or was one of the true greats. Perspective is needed, eras and systems have to be considered, and there should be some test of time.

NFL production doesn’t matter in any way, shape or form – this is the COLLEGE Football Hall of Fame – and other factors shouldn’t matter at all. Being worthy of the Hall should only be about what happened on the field during that player’s college career.

Here’s our ranking of all FBS player College Football Hall of Fame nominees based on how much they deserve to be in. A few things to keep in mind before going forward.

1. I know I’m supposed to care if a player was a NFF Scholar-Athlete, but I don’t.

2. Win a Heisman, get in the Hall. That should be automatic.

3. If you have to make a case why a player deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, he probably doesn’t deserve to be in.

Not only do voters have to take into account all the different eras and all the different aspects of the game’s evolution, but there are also the rules to deal with.

According to the National Football Foundation, to shorten and sum up the criteria:

1. A player has to have been a First Team All-American on a list recognized by the NCAA. No Joe Montana.

2. He’s eligible ten years after his final year of playing.

3. Post-career citizenship is factored into the voting, and an extra boost is given to those who earned a degree. O.J. Simpson is still in.

4. Players must have played within the last 50 years. So to be eligible for the 2023 class, the player had to have finished his career by 1973.

5. A coach is eligible three years after retiring or if he’s older than 70, and active coaches are eligible after age 75. He had to be a head coach for at least ten years and had to have coaches at least 100 games with a .600 minimum winning percentage.

These players were fantastic talents for their respective schools, and some might consider them legends, but it’s pushing it to put them in the Hall of Fame category.

All player bullet points written by the National Football Foundation at footballfoundation.org. You can vote for the College Football Hall of Fame by signing up here.

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