For the 13th consecutive season, the College Football Researchers Association has bestowed a Player of the Year award to the best overall player in college football, and this season Michael Penix, Jr. from Washington has taken the title. Runner-up Jayden Daniels actually garnered the same number for first-place votes as Penix (5) but more people had Daniels lower on their ballot than Penix. While we won’t yet know the results of the Heisman Trophy race until Saturday, it is interesting that the four finalists for that award were far and way the top vote-getters for this honor. Over the past 11 seasons, nine of the previous eleven winners of this award went on to win the Heisman Trophy, with Deshaun Watson (2016) and Tua Tagovailoa (2018) being the two CFRA Players of the Year to fall short in the Heisman Race. The full breakdown of votes is below with the number of first-place votes each player received in parentheses:

1.  Michael Penix, Jr. Washington (5)– 47 points

2. Jayden Daniels, LSU (5)– 42 points

3. Bo Nix, Oregon (2)– 36 points

4. Marvin Harrison, Jr., Ohio State (1) – 27 points

5. Keon Coleman, Florida State– 7 points

6. Blake Corum, Michigan– 6 points

7. Peyton Wilson, NC State– 5 points

8. Cody Schrader, Missouri– 4 points

9. Kaiden Salter, Liberty– 3 points

9. Rome Odunze- 3 points

9. Jalen Milroe, Alabama– 3 points

12. Brock Bowers, Georgia– 2 points

12. Ollie Gordon II, Oklahoma State– 2 points

12. Laiatu Latu, UCLA– 2 points

12. Jordan Travis, Florida State– 2 points

16. Mike Sainristil, Michigan– 1 point

16. Cooper Dejean, Iowa– 1 point

16. Travis Hunter, Colorado– 1 point

16. J.J. McCarthy, Michigan– 1 point