John Tamanaha

Greatest Heisman Trophy race ever?

Nonsense.

Instead, think of all the man-hours that could be saved because there won’t be a typical contest for college football's top individual prize.

There’s no need to sift through long preseason watch lists or pay much attention to silly player monitoring graphics pointing up, down or sideways after every game. That sort of weekly analysis is no longer necessary, leaving number crunchers and lobbyists to focus their attention elsewhere (perhaps on Capitol Hill).

Yes, instead of the usual process of wading through all the early-season hype to focus on a handful of worthy candidates, we already have our three finalists. Furthermore, rather than breaking down all their statistics and employing all sorts of metrics to compare them, we already know that their chances of walking away with the Heisman has everything to do with how their teams fare.

In December, when the winner stands at the podium and delivers the obligatory lines: “I’d like to thank my teammates and coaches ... without them this would not have been possible ... this is really a team award,” he will be telling the absolute truth.

The Heisman Trophy this year may as well be attached to one of the Bowl Championship Series title game invitations. But, unlike the BCS, there’s a rather simplistic formula in place to determine who takes home football’s most coveted individual honor.

As if you didn’t know, three quarterbacks are in the running for this year’s Heisman, just as they were last year ... Florida’s Tim Tebow, Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford and Texas’ Colt McCoy. That’s it. A trio so definitive that it seems ridiculous to introduce them. After all, two of them — Tebow (2007) and Bradford (2008) — already have 25-pound stiff-arm trophies sticking out of their back pockets.

In Tebow’s case it’s a benefit. Not so much for Bradford.

If both Florida and Oklahoma go undefeated — obviously meaning that Bradford beats McCoy in their head-to-head match up on Oct. 17 — Tebow will win the Heisman tiebreaker over Bradford with a large majority of the voters. Half of that reasoning dates back to Jan. 8, when the Tebow-led Gators mastered Bradford’s Sooners 24-14 in the most recent BCS Championship Game. The other half of the decision has to do with the fact that many Heisman voters will be more than happy to play a role in the coronation of Tebow as the most accomplished player in college football history with two Heismans, three national title rings.

Bradford’s resume doesn’t place him into that sort of discussion and therefore he doesn’t get to enjoy that extra benefit.

On the other hand, if Texas beats Oklahoma and joins Florida as an undefeated, McCoy will get the nod over Tebow. Beating the reigning Heisman Trophy winner head-to-head for the second consecutive season would be a huge selling point, but deeper instances of history would have a lot to do with it as well.

Ohio State’s Archie Griffin is the only two-time Heisman winner (1974-75) and voters tend to want to keep it that way. More importantly, however, McCoy would be well deserving of that sort of recognition to cap off what has been a fabulous collegiate career.

If Florida continues to make good on Tebow’s “promise” and ends up being the only undefeated team among these three teams, then obviously Tebow will bring home his second Heisman in a landslide.

If the top-ranked Gators aren’t able to navigate safely through their schedule, that’ll leave the winner of the Texas-Oklahoma game in the driver’s seat.

We’re well aware that such was not the case last season. Two weeks after the Gators got tripped up by Mississippi, Bradford lost out to McCoy in the Red River Rivalry 45-35 but went on to claim the Heisman before playing in the BCS title game. But this year is different. With the finalists so well established, the head-to-head clash in Dallas will carry a ton of weight.

Special feature Heisman Hopefuls Who will win top individual prize this season? NBCSports.com

If all three players get tagged with one regular-season loss — as was the case last season — Tebow’s name gets read. As the most talked about player in college football, he’s the focal point in all of this and he wins out  ... even if voters in the Southwest region try their best to short-circuit him for the second year in a row.

With the understanding that statistics and individual performances will take a back seat to team results this season (as the Oakland Raiders like to preach rather than practice, “Just Win Baby”), the key games to watch in terms of sorting out the Heisman are the same ones that will essentially determine who plays for the national title.

Further draining drama out of the Heisman situation, most of it surprisingly will shake out during October. On Oct. 10, you’ve got LSU hosting Florida in a Death Valley night game. That will be a doozy. A week later, it’s the aforementioned Texas-Oklahoma showdown in Dallas. Then on Halloween, the treats include Florida vs. Georgia in Jacksonville and Texas at Oklahoma State.

Unfortunately, this sort of midseason bundling takes a lot of the steam out of what is usually a lively separate discussion.