The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame on Monday released the ballot of former players and coaches under consideration for induction into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2020. The list includes 215 total individuals, including 76 FBS players and five FBS coaches.
While it’s impossible to pick a representative handful of headliners among 215 people, here is a sampling of names that will jump out to the decently-well-informed fan: Michigan State OL Flozell Adams, Michigan State K Morten Andersen, USC DB Mark Carrier, Iowa TE Dallas Clark, Kentucky QB Tim Couch, Nebraska QB Eric Crouch, SMU RB Eric Dickerson, LSU DT Glenn Dorsey, California TE Tony Gonzalez, Syracuse WR/KR Marvin Harrison, Maryland LB EJ Henderson, Oklahoma QB Josh Heupel, Ohio State LB James Laurinaitis, Miami LB Ray Lewis, Stanford WR Ed McCaffrey, USC QB Carson Palmer, North Carolina DE Julius Peppers, Georgia DL David Pollack, California LB Ron Rivera, Colorado RB Rashaan Salaam, Clemson RB/KR CJ Spiller and Oklahoma DB Roy Williams.
The five coaches under consideration are Troy’s Larry Blakeney, Jim Carlen (West Virginia, Texas Tech, South Carolina), Pete Cawthon (Austin College [Texas], Texas Tech), Billy Jack Murphy (Memphis) and Darryl Rogers (Cal State East Bay, Fresno State, San Jose State, Michigan State and Arizona State).
To receive consideration, players must have played within the last 50 years, received First Team All-America honors by an NCAA-recognized selector, and be at least 10 years removed from his college career. Coaches must be at least three years post-retirement, have won at least 60 percent of their games and coached at least 100 games. Conduct as a citizen is also considered.
“It’s an enormous honor to just be on the College Football Hall of Fame ballot when you think that more than 5.33 million people have played college football and only 1,010 players have been inducted,” said NFF President & CEO Steve Hatchell. “The Hall’s requirement of being a First-Team All-American creates a much smaller pool of about 1,500 individuals who are even eligible. Being in today’s elite group means an individual is truly among the greatest to have ever played the game, and we look forward to announcing the 2020 College Football Hall of Fame Class in January.”
Ballots will be forwarded to current Hall of Famers and the NFF’s 12,000-plus members for consideration by the NFF’s Honors Court, chaired by Hall of Famer and two-time Heisman winner Archie Griffin, who selects each class.
The 2020 class will be announced in advance of the College Football Playoff National Championship this January in New Orleans, and inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame at the NFF Awards Dinner on Dec. 8, 2020 in New York. The full ballot can be found here.
