Random: MAC Football Schools And Top Ten Heisman Finishes

This has been languishing on my desktop for a few days and I don't have much other use for it other than to share it with you kind folks. I probably compiled it in relation to LeShon Johnson to show how rare it was for a MAC player to get national recognition, and then I realized Johnson wasn't technically a MAC player. Doy.

So this list may be out there in some capacity somewhere, but let's share it again: every MAC school name-dropped in a top ten of voting for the Heisman Trophy:

1971: Toledo QB Chuck Ealey (8th)
1975: Toledo QB Gene Swick (10th)
1985: Bowling Green QB Brian McClure (T-10th)
1986: Temple RB Paul Palmer (2nd)*
1993: Northern Illinois RB LeShon Johnson (6th)*
1997: Marshall WR Randy Moss (4th)†
1999: Marshall QB Chad Pennington (5th)†
2003: Miami QB Ben Roethlisberger (9th)
2008: Ball State QB Nate Davis (8th)

* - School was not in the MAC at the time of the vote. Temple was a Division I-A independent in '86 and NIU was in the now-obsolete Big West in '93, also I-A.

† - Was invited to New York as a finalist.