College football’s top players, who in the past have gone to Disney World to collect awards at the end of each season, will come to Atlanta instead starting next year.
The College Football Hall of Fame has agreed to a multiyear deal with ESPN to move the Home Depot College Football Awards show from Disney to the hall’s new facility in downtown Atlanta.
The show, which airs live on ESPN each December, features the presentation of virtually all of the sport’s major awards except the Heisman Trophy.
Those include the Maxwell Award (player of the year), Davey O’Brien Award (best quarterback), Bednarik Award (best defensive player), Biletnikoff Award (best receiver) and Outland Trophy (best interior lineman), among others.
Several finalists for each award typically attend the ceremony, often accompanied by coaches and family members.
“The attraction we built here is a big celebration of the sport, and … it makes sense a celebratory event like this would be in the Hall of Fame,” John Stephenson, Hall of Fame president and CEO, said Wednesday.
“As an Atlantan myself, I’m pretty proud that Atlanta … can draw this away from a place like Disney,” Stephenson said. “It shows Atlanta is really on the rise as far as becoming a destination for a lot of things, but particularly for college-football happenings.”
Next year’s awards show will be held Dec. 10 on the Hall of Fame’s 45-yard-long indoor football field, which doubles as an event space. The plan is to sell some tickets to the public, but details, including seating capacity, haven’t been set, Stephenson said.
“It’s a mega-quality event,” National Football Foundation president and CEO Steve Hatchell said. “This is the right place for it.”
Burke Magnus, ESPN’s senior vice president of programming and acquisitions, said in a statement that Disney provided “a wonderful home” for the awards show “for more than two decades.”
“The show and this new venue are not only a natural fit, but a great way to mark 25 years of ESPN televising the awards,” Magnus said.
ESPN is owned by the Walt Disney Company.
Stephenson traced the idea of hosting the show to the design of the Hall of Fame building, which he said was wired, with input from ESPN, to serve as a broadcast facility.
In addition to nine National College Football Awards Association player awards, the show also includes presentation of the Home Depot coach-of-the-year award and the Walter Camp All-America team.
Among players claiming awards at this year’s event were Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota, Alabama wide receiver Amari Cooper and Wisconsin running back Melvin Gordon.
About the Author
Keep Reading
The Latest
Featured
