For most sports, the hall of fame is among the most cherished accomplishments that can be achieved in a career. Baseball fans mount years long efforts to get Bert Blyleven or Tim Raines inducted, and hall of fame day has become one of the biggest days on the baseball calendar. Hall of fame weekend is also a big event for professional football, where getting a bust in Canton is a privileged honor and the fact that Cris Carter has not yet been inducted stirs outrage among many. Then you have the college football hall of fame. In contrast to its cousins, the college football hall of fame has been a colossal failure. Arcane induction rules that make little sense leave the fan disconnected and keep the game's best players out of the hall. In my opinion, this is largely responsible for attendance so poor that the museum is moving from South Bend to Atlanta. I don't want to go over the rules here, but this example should give you an idea: Cliff Harris will be eligible for the College Football Hall of Fame in 2021. Joey Harrington will be eligible never. That pretty much sums up all you need to know on the topic.
Because the offseason is a time for speculation and debate in lieu of actual games, the folks here at SB Nation have decided that there must be a better way. We are creating our own College Football Hall of Fame, and we need your help finding nominees. Here are the criteria, largely stolen from Team Speed Kills:
We are allowed to nominate five players or coaches from 10 categories: QB, RB, WR, TE, OL, DL, LB, DB, ST, Coach. No more than one nominee can come from each category. We're also strongly encouraged to have at least one of our nominees come from a non-AQ team, and four come from Oregon).
Eligibility: For players or inactive coaches, the nominee should have been out of college for four full years. So the first class would cover 1962 to players and coaches who finished their career by 2007 (bowls of January 2008). The other option for active coaches OR coaches who haven't been inactive for four years is that they were at their current position for at least five seasons. (Position, NOT school.) We're also asking that each player be initially nominated by someone who saw them play or coach, either in person or on television.
We have until next Tuesday to come up with our five nominees, and they'll be decided by community consensus. Who are your suggestions?