AP Mr. Football Nomination/Voting Criteria

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

So this afternoon I was doing a little digging about the history of the Mr. Football award in Kentucky, and I came across two articles that definitely raised my eyebrows.



The first article, from the January 23, 1987 edition of the Lexington Herald-Leader, is an article about the newly-created Mr. Football award set to come out thanks to the Kentucky Associated Press Sports Editor Association. For that year's inaugural edition of the award, the finalists were named by a 5-person committee, comprised of sports editors Wayne Knuckles of the Corbin Times-Tribune, Bob Watkins of the E-town News-Enterprise, Dan Weber of the Kentucky Post, Mike Embry of AP News Lexington, and Jim Pickens of the Madisonville Messenger. (The Courier-Journal was most noticeably absent from the nomination committee.)

Most interesting to me, was the fact that the article actually shed some light on what has now seemingly become the mystery-shrouded, secret criteria for award voting. Specific the Herald-Leader's article, I was intrigued to learn that "Mr. Football candidates must have potential to play NCAA Division I football". At the point when the award was conceived and created, late 1986/early 1987, the NCAA had Division I split into D I-A (now named Football Bowl Subdivision), and D I-AA (now named Football Championship Subdivision), so according to the guidelines from the Herald-Leader, the assumption would be that the winner would have potential to play at a school, and presumably would hold offers, from schools among those ranks.




The second article, from the February 3, 1987 edition of the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer, pulls back the curtain a little further. Or perhaps, seeing as there were two separate Kentucky AP outlets that were openly discussing the new award, there was never intended to be any curtain of secrecy in the first place: "Unlike the 'Mr. Basketball' award, the 'Mr. Football' recipient is expected to be more than an outstanding player. Citizenship, academic standing and involvement in other activities are part of the criteria."  One other detail I really liked (and was previously unaware of) was that the Messenger-Inquirer article mentions that the Mr. Football winner would wear jersey No. 1 in the Kentucky-Tennessee All-Star Game each summer.

I tweeted these two articles a little while ago, and got some fairly immediate and definitely interesting feedback. Larry Vaught, who was longtime sports writer/editor for the Danville Advocate-Messenger filled me in on some more details from the inception of the Mr. Football award, which he was a part of. Vaught commented that the sports editors who started the award felt that academic and citizenship criteria were important for the award in addition to football performance, but he also bemoaned that "sadly, today, none of that seems to matter but the intent was to have a high character, good student and special football player." He also clarified that the editors who made up the nominating committee were intended to rotate regularly to include representatives from each part of the state, when possible.

The comments from currently-voting AP members were also telling:

Zach Klemme (Ashland Daily Independent): "Add me to the list of voters who did not know [the Mr. Football Award has academic & citizenship criteria. Should go without saying that because people seem not to know this, it isn’t applicable to Mr. Football voting today, but I think if you polled most voters they would probably say it’s more nuanced than simply 'best player.' "

Jared Peck (Lexington Herald-Leader): "I have thoughts. I'll keep to myself for a bit. But let's just say I'm not happy with how this has 'evolved.' "

Lex Dixon (Corbin Times-Tribune): "I had no clue! That's interesting."

Jason Frakes (Louisville Courier-Journal): "So, that article is like 35-36 years old? I can tell you no such criteria is conveyed when voting for the award now, nor has it been for the last 15 years."

[FLYGUY]

Who can list the voters for the AP awards. How many are there?

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

5 hours ago, FLYGUY said:

Who can list the voters for the AP awards. How many are there?

That's one of the big questions out there. To the best of my knowledge, the Kentucky AP has never formally disclosed a list of member media outlets, or a list of eligible voters. I know that the Ashland Daily Independent, the Bowling Green Daily News, the Cincinnati Enquirer (Kentucky Edition), the Paducah Sun, the Louisville Courier-Journal, the Lexington Herald-Leader, the Kentucky New Era, the Henderson Gleaner, the Corbin Times-Tribune and the Maysville Ledger Independent are currently among the eligible voters (that's 10). The Danville Advocate Messenger no longer has a sports editor, and I don't believe they are AP members at this point so they are not eligible to vote, but their sports desk was one of the originals responsible for helping get the Mr. Football award created. The Kentucky AP office in Lexington, which writes its own content in addition to overseeing the polls/all-state team/Mr. Football award/etc, gets a vote as well.

And AP member sports radio and TV news outlets are also allowed to vote, and some do. In the recent past I've seen some poll articles from the Courier Journal that listed WDKY Fox56 in Lexington and NewsTalk 94.3 WKYX in Paducah as voters. I've also personally spoken with the sports director at Fox19 in Cincinnati about AP voting. He said that the four Cincinnati nightly news channels all are Kentucky AP members, and do have voting privileges, but that the station directors all made an agreement not to allow their sports departments to vote in Kentucky polls to prevent any "bad optics".

The CEOs of both EW Scripps and Paxton Media are on the national board of directors for the Associated Press, and Paxton just acquired Landmark Community Newspapers this past May 2021, which gives them ownership of a significant number of the dailies around the state of Kentucky. My understanding is that all of the Paxton-owned dailies are now AP members, but I'm not sure whether or not that will have them voting.

There are occasional years where one or another newspaper will disclose how many voters there were, but again, no actual names or voting results. Just some blanket verbiage about "selected by [fill in the blank number] media representatives from across the state." Looking back at some of the most recent Mr. Football/All-State lists, here's what I found:

2013 - (15) media reps
2014 - (24) media reps
2015 - (14) media reps
2016 - (20) media reps
2017 - (17) media reps
2018 - (16) media reps
2019 - Not Disclosed
2020 - (12) media reps
2021 - (13) media reps

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

1 hour ago, Colonels_Wear_Blue said:

The CEOs of both EW Scripps and Paxton Media are on the national board of directors for the Associated Press, and Paxton just acquired Landmark Community Newspapers this past May 2021, which gives them ownership of a significant number of the dailies around the state of Kentucky. My understanding is that all of the Paxton-owned dailies are now AP members, but I'm not sure whether or not that will have them voting.

I'm not claiming this to be any kind of comprehensive list of all the printed news media around the state, but if Paxton Media does get all of its newly(ish) acquired daily newspapers online with the Associated Press, then that could really be a major shot in the arm for AP voting, in addition to a much more diverse group of voters in terms of geographic location in the commonwealth. I know at least a couple of their newspapers that came in as a part of the Landmark Media acquisition have started running with some AP stories.
 

Daily
Anderson News (Newspaper, Lawrenceburg) Landmark Media/Paxton Media
Appalachian News-Express (Newspaper, Pikeville) Lancaster Management
Carrollton News-Democrat (Newspaper, Carrolton) Landmark Media/Paxton Media
Casey County News (Newspaper, Liberty) Landmark Media/Paxton Media
Central Kentucky News-Journal (Newspaper, Campbellsville) Landmark Media/Paxton Media
Commonwealth Journal (Newspaper, Somerset) CNHI, LLC
Cynthiana Democrat (Newspaper, Cynthiana) Landmark Media/Paxton Media
Floyd County Chronicle & Times (Newspaper, Prestonsburg) Lancaster Management
Georgetown News-Graphic (Newspaper, Georgetown) Lancaster Management
Grant County News and Express (Newspaper, Williamstown) Landmark Media/Paxton Media
Hazard News-Graphic (Newspaper, Hazard) Lancaster Management
Henry County Local (Newspaper, Eminence) Landmark Media/Paxton Media
Ledger Independent (Newspaper, Maysville) Champion Media
Lebanon Enterprise (Newspaper, Lebanon) Landmark Media/Paxton Media
Mayfield Messenger (Newspaper, Mayfield) Paxton Media
Messenger-Inquirer (Newspaper, Owensboro) Paxton Media
Owenton News-Herald (Newspaper, Owenton) Landmark Media/Paxton Media
Pioneer News (Newspaper, Shepherdsville) Landmark Media/Paxton Media
Sentinel-News (Newspaper, Shelbyville) Landmark Media/Paxton Media
Spencer Magnet (Newspaper, Taylorsville) Landmark Media/Paxton Media
Springfield Sun (Newspaper, Springfield) Landmark Media/Paxton Media
The Cats' Pause (Sports Publication, Shelbyville) Landmark Media/Paxton Media
The Courier-Journal (Newspaper, Louisville) Gannett Co., Inc.
The Cincinnati Enquirer (Newspaper, Cincinnati) Gannett Co., Inc.
The Daily News (Newspaper, Bowling Green) Bowling Green Daily News
The Daily Independent (Newspaper, Ashland) CNHI, LLC
The Gleaner (Newspaper, Henderson) E.W. Scripps Company
The Herald-Leader (Newspaper, Lexington) The McClatchy Company
The Kentucky New Era (Newspaper, Hopkinsville) Paxton Media
The Kentucky Standard (Newspaper, Bardstown) Landmark Media/Paxton Media
The LaRue County Herald-News (Newspaper, Hodgenville) Landmark Media/Paxton Media
The Messenger (Newspaper, Madisonville) Paxton Media
The Murray Ledger & Times (Newspaper, Murray) Lancaster Management
The News-Enterprise (Newspaper, Elizabethtown) Landmark Media/Paxton Media
The Paducah Sun (Newspaper, Paducah) Paxton Media
The Paintsville Herald (Newspaper, Paintsville) Lancaster Management
The Times-Tribune (Newspaper, Corbin) CNHI, LLC
Trimble Banner (Newspaper, Bedford) Landmark Media/Paxton Media

Twice-Weekly / Three-Times-Weekly
The Advocate-Messenger (Newspaper, Danville) Boone Newspapers
The Harlan Enterprise (Newspaper, Harlan) Boone Newspapers
The Middlesboro Daily News (Newspaper, Middlesboro) Boone Newspapers
The News-Democrat & Leader (Newspaper, Russellville) Paxton Media
The Richmond Register (Newspaper, Richmond) CNHI, LLC
The State Journal (Newspaper, Frankfort) Boone Newspapers
The Winchester Sun (Newspaper, Winchester) Boone Newspapers

Weekly
Franklin Favorite (Newspaper, Franklin) Paxton Media
Grayson County News Gazette (Newspaper, Leitchfield) Paxton Media
Marshall County Tribune-Courier (Newspaper, Benton) Paxton Media
McLean County News (Newspaper, Calhoun) Paxton Media
Oldham Era (Newspaper, LaGrange) Landmark Media/Paxton Media
The Beattyville Enterprise (Newspaper, Beattyville) Nolan Group Media
The Berea Citizen (Newspaper, Berea) Nolan Group Media
The Cadiz Record (Newspaper, Cadiz) Paxton Media
The Herald-Ledger (Newspaper, Eddyville) Paxton Media
The Interior Journal (Newspaper, Stanford) Boone Newspapers
The Jackson-Breathitt County Times-Voice (Newspaper, Jackson) Nolan Group Media
The Jackson County Sun  (Newspaper, McKee) Nolan Group Media
The Jessamine Journal (Newspaper, Nicholasville) Boone Newspapers
The Journal Enterprise (Newspaper, Providence) Paxton Media
The London Sentinel Echo (Newspaper, London) CNHI, LLC
The Manchester Enterprise (Newspaper, Manchester) Nolan Group Media
The Mountain Advocate (Newspaper, Barbourville) Nolan Group Media
The Pineville Sun-Cumberland Courier (Newspaper, Pineville) Nolan Group Media
The Progress (Newspaper, Dawson Springs) Paxon Media

Monthly
Kentucky Prep Gridiron (Sports Publication, Jackson) Spencer Long
 

[Cary Grant]

What a great group, why not the Central City Times?

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

5 hours ago, Cary Grant said:

What a great group, why not the Central City Times?

Missed that little nugget from the very first sentence about "not claiming this to be any kind of comprehensive list of all the printed media around the state," huh? 😁