Heisman campaigns cost more than cash

UA has tentative plans for Cobbs’ promotion

The University of Arkansas athletic department has plans to set aside money for the possible future promotion of Cedric Cobbs for the Heisman Memorial Trophy Award. While the UA said the amount is tentatively less than $5,000, the figure could rise if the Little Rock native’s chances of winning become more realistic.

Most likely, the promotion of Cobbs — now a sophomore — for college football’s most prestigious individual award will not take place until just prior to the 2001 season.

Different schools vary in their promotion of Heisman candidates. This year, Texas Christian University is reportedly spending in the neighborhood of $90,000 on tailback LaDainian Tomlinson. Last year, the University of Wisconsin’s Ron Dayne won with the school spending less than $5,000 on additional promotional costs, mainly going to four-color postcard printouts updating Dayne’s weekly statistics. Georgia Tech’s Joe Hamilton finished runner-up in the voting despite the school using a much more elaborate campaign. And in 1997, Michigan did almost no additional promotion for Charles Woodson despite having the country’s largest athletic budget. Woodson beat out Tennessee’s Peyton Manning for the award.

Fortunately for Cobbs, Arkansas is playing in one of the highest profile football leagues in the country in the Southeastern Conference, which has a television package second only to the more metroplitan Big Ten Conference.

“I’m sure down in that part of the country they’ll go all out,” said Wisconsin Sports Information Director Steve Malchow, who ran the successful promotion of Dayne. “[Arkansas is] in a great conference, playing great teams.”

Arkansas has never had a player it seriously promoted for the Heisman. The best chances for the UA came in 1948 with Clyde Scott, 1953 with Lamar McHan and 1972 with Joe Ferguson. The Hogs only other likely suspect, All-American halfback Lance Alworth (1961), was never a major Heisman consideration.

But fans began talking about Cobbs’ future Heisman hopes after some strong freshman performances.

Heisman history

Different schools use different philosophies. TCU, which plays in the Western Athletic Conference, gets far less national attention from the major networks and thus is going all out in its promotion of Tomlinson. TCU SID Trey Carmichael said the school has sent out about 1,000 CD roms, developed a Web site and printed Tomlinson’s picture on the cover of media notebooks.

With today’s plethora of cable sports networks and Internet sites, there is a surplus of information available.

David Housel, former SID and current athletic director at Auburn University, was in charge of Bo Jackson’s successful Heisman promotion in 1985.

Housel said the player must be a legitimate candidate before an athletic department can afford the time and money needed for a serious promotion.

“I don’t like calling what we did a Bo Jackson campaign,” Housel said. “If you call it a campaign you cheapen the award. And it’s somewhat of a discredit to the person you’re promoting. Do you need a campaign if the player’s not deserving in his own right? What we did do was to respond to the media requests regarding Bo and anticipate questions about Bo. We mailed out about three different postcards. We didn’t even send out a video tape. I think there’s a fine line between helping a candidate and overkill hurting a candidate. Where that line is varies with each individual voter.”

One of the first overkills on Heisman campaigning came in 1970 when Stanford and Ole Miss were battling for the spotlight on their players, Jim Plunkett and Archie Manning, respectively. Plunkett won, Notre Dame’s Joe Theismann was runner-up and Manning, who was injured much of the year, finished third.

“The next year there was such a media reaction turnoff to those (Stanford and Ole Miss) tactics that we took a very low key approach with Pat Sullivan,” said Housel, then working with the AU ticket office. “A Heisman campaign is a lot like a presidential campaign in that the closer you get to voting time in November people get tired of it. It all comes down to the issues, who you’re comfortable voting for and who you think is deserving. I think you have to have three ingredients for a successful Heisman campaign. Number one, you have to have a viable candidate. Number two, your team needs to be successful. And number three, you cannot have overkill on his promotion.”

Sullivan won the award with very little fanfare in 1971.

Arkansas’ strategy

Arkansas SID Kevin Trainor, who has talked with people at Florida and Tennessee regarding their recent player promotions, said Arkansas will not “insult the voters” with shameless promotions of any player.

“You have to make sure your candidate is primed and ready to go,” Trainor said. “At some point you have to decide whether you’re doing it for show or for the candidate. You never want to take for granted that the guy is going to get publicity.”

Malchow said CD roms and player videos will often never be viewed.

Former South Carolina SID Tom Price, now retired, ran the successful 1980 George Rogers promotion. He said there were no real frills out of his department that year. Nor does he advise much from others today.

“I’ve gotten three CDs [over the] last couple of weeks from schools,” Price said. “They’re laying around the house somewhere. I don’t need ’em. I can watch the games for myself.”

Trainor said he and UA Head Coach Houston Nutt have discussed the possibility of a Cobbs promotion in the future.

“Right now Cedric Cobbs is not a Heisman candidate,” Trainor said. “I think a realistic goal is to get him in position to make a serious run next year. Obviously, we want to get his name out there as much as we can. Arkansas is a major Division I program in a conference where [Cobbs] is going to get some attention.”

What’s at stake

Aside from the obvious exposure a Heisman candidate will get for the university, having a Heisman Trophy listed on your resume is a prelude to a multi-million contract.

Dayne signed a five-year, $7.14 million pact and with the New York Giants, receiving an additional $4.5 million signing bonus. Texas’ Ricky Williams signed a seven-year, incentive-laden contract with the New Orleans Saints that could earn him anywhere from $11.1 million to $68.4 million. He also received a signing bonus of $8.84 million. And 1995 winner Eddie George (Ohio State) of the Tennessee Titans recently signed the largest contract in the NFL with a six-year extension worth $42 million.