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The Heisman trophy race wasn't quite as close this year with fewer standout candidates, and thus the committee decided to only invite three finalists to New York for the award ceremony. Bad news for Ohio State fans, one of those finalists is not quarterback J.T. Barrett.
While it may be usually customary for the committee to invite five players to the ceremony, in past years they have invited as few as three or as many as six depending on how the voting pans out. In 2006, Ohio State's very own Troy Smith made the honorable trip to New York; he was such a shoe-in for the award, they only invited two other players to join him at the ceremony.
Despite numerous nods from the Big Ten conference, Barrett's season ending injury came at an inopportune time. The strong play of Cardale Jones near seamlessly replacing Barrett may have also caused some national voters to undervalue his outstanding redshirt freshman season.
Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota is almost a lock for the high honor, but Ohio State fans were still hoping to see one of their own acknowledged on a national stage. Accompanying Mariota next weekend will be Alabama WR Amari Cooper and Wisconsin RB Melvin Gordon. Ohio State's defense was able to keep Gordon to under 100 yards on Saturday, but his overall performance this season included over 2300 rushing yards, 26 touchdowns and a 408 yard game against Nebraska.
As nice as it would've been to see Barrett hailed as one of the best in college football this season, he has three more chances to get that coveted invitation to New York.