Maybe the Joe Moore Award has this whole college football award business figured out

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Earlier in my career, when I was helping run team blog programming for SB Nation, I used to go into our Washington, D.C. office for college football Saturdays. There, with a few other colleagues, we’d plop down in front of a wall of TVs, and watch at least ten consecutive hours of college football.

My job (for, uh, a lot of reasons) wasn’t like most other working sportswriters. I wasn’t actually going to any stadiums…my job was to stay back at headquarters and provide support to some of the other people who were actually going to games.

Here’s a dirty little secret that I didn’t completely grasp until my job moved me out of the SB Nation offices and back into the field. If my job was to cover a game that kicked off at 3:30 ET, I’m missing almost all the noon kickoff games. I’m either in the tailgate lots taking pictures/talking to fans, in the press box talking to communication staff or other reporters, or generally doing other work. And during the 3:30 shift, I’m completely focused on the game I’m actually covering.

After that 3:30 game concludes, I need to go to the postgame press conference, file at least one story, take additional photos/videos and maybe talk with a few other team personnel. I might get back to my hotel/house around 9, 10 PM ET.

Maybe I’m watching a little Pac-12 after dark at that point. Maybe I’m just going to bed. But the point remains, I’ve watched very, very little other college football that day, beyond the event I was actually covering.

That’s not just a me issue. That’s a problem for nearly every beat writer or national writer who is regularly attending games. You may use part of your Sunday to watch film or catch up on some of the stuff you missed, but if you’re not in an office on a Saturday, there is simply too much going on for you to be aware of everything going on across the country.

This can be a problem, since beat writers typically make up the majority of major college football award voters. The AP Poll, which, despite not crowning a national champion, is still very important, is mostly decided by beat writers who are absolutely not staying up to watch Colorado/Arizona kick off at 10:30 ET, because that isn’t their actual job. That means you sometimes end up with ballots like this one.

But it’s not just the AP Poll…it’s also the Biletnikoff, or the Heisman, or plenty of other All-American lists. There are lots and lots of Serious Professional Journalists who have a vote on these things, but may not have the time, or specific expertise, to make the most informed decisions.

One possible solution? Do what the Joe Moore Award does

The Joe Moore Award is different for several reasons. For one, while other major college football awards celebrate an individual player (the best kicker, best running back, etc.), the Joe Moore Award celebrates the Most Outstanding Offensive Line Unit, making it the only major college football award to celebrate a position group rather than a single person.

Unlike many other major awards, the Joe Moore Award also doesn’t create a preseason watchlist. Instead, the first update that comes from the award committee is a “midseason honor roll”, which celebrates about two dozen offensive lines. Last year’s midseason honor roll includes power programs like Alabama, Ohio State and Oregon, but also programs like UNLV, UConn, Western Michigan and Army. In fact, it was Army that ended up winning the award last season.

You can get away with this sort of thing by having a small group of voters who not only Know Ball, but can talk to each other. Aaron Taylor, a former Notre Dame offensive lineman who helped found the award, told me the committee keeps their group small by design. You can’t really have 67 people on a weekly Zoom call to talk ball, after all. But a smaller group can regularly convene to break down film, not just from the largest programs, but from everybody. After a week or two, Taylor told me, “you just don’t really know who is good or not yet.”

It’s also worth noting that evaluating offensive line play can be more technical than grading out quarterbacks or wideouts. There are very few “counting stats” involved for offensive linemen (like touchdowns or yards-per-play), and judging a unit requires careful study beyond simply watching the football.

I’m not saying that a smart beat writer can’t do that, but I do think it’s fair to say that determining which interior linemen are really whoopin’ ass is a different skillset than what is often required to write a good game story, cover recruiting, or interview coaches and administrators. I, for one, don’t mind admitting that I do not have the Ball Knowledge to provide that evaluation. You guys don’t pay me nine dollars to tell you whether Florida State or Texas Tech has a better offensive line.

If you want that sort of information, I’d recommend listening to guys who have played that position, like Cole Cubelic or Mike Golic Jr, fellas who just so happen to also vote on the Joe Moore Committee.

But the award is also trying something else that’s a little different…content

Many other college football awards try to also maintain a charitable component beyond celebrating a specific player or unit during a college football season. But partnering with a local charity requires fundraising and visibility that goes beyond just a few offseason golf scrambles or a rubber chicken dinner circuit. Taylor admitted to me that that type of fundraising went beyond the immediate skillset of existing committee members, and they wanted to try something a little different.

Enter the Joe Moore Award YouTube Channel. 

These videos include interviews with offensive line coaches, as well as tactical breakdowns and previews for those that want to better understand college football’s big games through an offensive license perspective.

Taylor told me that they see their foray into video as potentially even more expansive, they see a chance to not only help better educate the public on the Xs and Os of offensive line play, but to “celebrate the big man lifestyle” and to elevate the personalities, and quirks, of the players that occupy the position.

I say this with love in my heart, but when I see Mike Golic Jr. break down the Reese’s Chocolate Lava Big Cup on Instagram, for example… I think that is spiritually offensive lineman lifestyle content. One can create videos that celebrate the award’s selection criteria: “toughness, effort, teamwork, consistency, technique, and finishing”, while also reminding the world that the kind of dudes who play offensive are also often smart…and a little bit weird.

In a perfect world, the award’s video assets grow enough in popularity that they can be used for ad and partnership inventory, helping the foundation raise more money for charity and operational costs over the course of the year. But even if that takes a while to happen, the videos can help fans understand the game away from the ball a teensy bit better.

Part of the editorial thesis of Extra Points is that it’s okay for some publishers to focus on specific niches, rather than trying to cover everything, because college sports is just so dang big. I am the guy that is going to track the money, or the lawsuits, or the policy stuff, so other people can interview coaches at practice. The guys with the Joe Moore Award can narrow their focus on the Xs and Os of the Big Guys up front, so everybody else can direct their attention elsewhere on Saturdays.

Is that what every other award does? No. But offensive linemen are a little bit different. It makes sense that their award would be, too.

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