Do preseason award watch lists help your NFL Draft stock?
It ends right about the same time that game previews for week zero get published.
We're talking about college football preseason award watch list season. Every mid-July, these press releases proliferate, and they circulate every single business day until mid-August. On one hand, they're kind of meaningless and pointless.
Yet on the other hand, they serve a lot of different interests, and they serve them well. Making a preseason award watch list is the football equivalent of declaring your college major as "Pre-Law" or "Pre-Med."
It's not an accomplishment, it's a statement of intent. Just when the annual summer lull in the sports calendar reaches its most unbearable point, they start showing up. Various organizations and committees comprise them, and then soon blast them out in press releases.
Sports Information Directors, at their least busy point of the entire year, then post them on social media and blast 'em out in mass emails. From there, the laziest and least creative of media outlets then recycle them; sometimes even verbatim!
And that is the growth/life cycle of an award watch list. They give people who want to talk about college football year round, something to do and say at the time of the year when we all miss college football the most.
So they do inspire content for creators (the quality of which is debatable) and generate favorable media coverage for college football programs.
But do they do actually do anything for individual players? Results may vary.
The Doak Walker award, given to the nation's top running back, has 102 names on its watch list this summer.
There are only 135 teams in FBS.
So basically, if you are expected to carry the football in a 2025 college football game, congratulations! You are ON THE LIST!
Yes, this is the NCAA version of a participation trophy.
However, making a shorter list, like say the Manning award, which only has 27 names on it, is obviously much more prestigious. Fun fact: the most hyped up player in college football, this Texas fella named Arch Manning, did not make the Manning award watch list.
To quote French Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire:
'The Holy Roman Empire was neither Holy nor Roman, nor an Empire.'
And if you're somebody who is trying to get on the national radar, award watch lists certainly help. Yes, your play will determine how far you move up the prospect rankings, but you still need to get on the map, somehow, someway, to begin with.
They don't matter too much to the players that we already know are very elite, like say Illinois cornerback Xavier Scott.
Or for guys like Justice Haynes, who play a glamor position (running back) for a blue blood (Michigan) after having done so at another blue blood (Alabama)
However, if you're obscure and/or unproven, award watch lists are definitely your friend.
From there, you can let your performances and results do the talking, and then you can impress at Pro Day or combine and then go from there.
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