Associated Press mulling change to NFL MVP voting system
Hark! The Related Press is contemplating making adjustments to their NFL MVP voting course of! I by no means thought I’d see the day.
The Related Press’ MVP Award has lengthy been thought-about the “actual” MVP. Whereas different shops could supply their very own tackle who essentially the most precious participant is, the AP’s distinction is essentially the most revered. Nonetheless, the voting system to find out the MVP is archaic. One vote for every individual?! That’s terrible! Not as a result of it doesn’t work. There hasn’t been a legitimately shut MVP race since Adrian Peterson received the award in 2012. Nonetheless, it’s boring. That’s simple.
The place leagues just like the NBA and MLB give every of their voters an opportunity to rank their top-five choices, the NFL’s MVP voters have by no means had that luxurious. It not solely provides voters an opportunity to shine a lightweight on some individuals who may not have been thought-about for the award, but it surely additionally provides voters a possibility to offer multiple participant recognition. Give it some thought. Within the NFL’s voting technique, if a voter can’t determine between two gamers, they in the end have to choose just one. Though they believed it was a detailed race, all of their votes/factors go to solely that one participant. Positive, some voters have provided co-MVPs prior to now like in 2012 when Peterson acquired 30.5 votes and Peyton Manning acquired 19.5. Nonetheless, that’s a really uncommon prevalence and beneath the present voting ideas, it looks as if a cop-out. Providing voters an opportunity to rank gamers wouldn’t solely make the voting course of much less disturbing, however would additionally allow voters to offer recognition to athletes they thought-about to have the second or third-best seasons.
After all, the ranked-choice voting system isn’t with out its personal flaws. The plain downside is the opportunity of an MVP winner having fewer first-place votes than the second or third-place finisher. Nonetheless, even within the 40-plus years that the NBA has used a ranked-choice system voted on by the media, solely as soon as has the participant with essentially the most first-place votes not taken house the {hardware} — 1990 Charles Barkley. There have been a number of cases the place the participant with the second-most first-place votes didn’t end second in voting, however that’s inconsequential.
In MLB, the professionals of the ranked-choice system have been on full show in 2017, when each Joey Votto and Giancarlo Stanton acquired 10 first-place votes. If this have been the NFL, we might’ve had co-NL MVPs that 12 months. Simply typing that out made me vomit profusely. Nonetheless, Stanton acquired extra ranked factors all through the rest of the ballots and fortunately, there was just one winner.
G/O Media could get a fee
AP’s NFL MVP Award has by no means been topic to a lot controversy. Nonetheless, it’s additionally been essentially the most primary, vanilla, unexciting MVP voting technique of any of the Large 4 American sports activities. It additionally doesn’t give a lot respect to anyone until they obtain at the least one MVP vote. Take into consideration how nice Russell Wilson’s 2019 season was — 31 touchdowns, solely 5 interceptions, all whereas sitting behind one of many worst offensive traces in soccer. Wilson received sacked 48 occasions that season, which led the league. He additionally led the league in fourth quarter comebacks and game-winning drives. Wilson didn’t get a single MVP vote.
I’m not undercutting how spectacular Lamar Jackson was that 12 months, however wouldn’t it have been good to see Wilson’s title proper beneath Jackson’s? Proper now, for those who search for the voting in 2019, all you see is how nice Jackson was. Wilson isn’t even given a second thought. He’s barely a footnote.
Whereas some folks could contemplate the ranked-choice system pointless given how apparent the final decade of NFL MVP winners have been, it’s nonetheless a system that promotes recognizing a number of gamers for his or her improbable seasons, and that’s lengthy overdue.
