The All-Time Heisman Schools (Updated)

Whenever we talk about the top schools in Heisman history, the focus falls primarily on how many trophies have been won.

But the annual Heisman vote is impacted by a wide cross section of players from dozens of programs around the country. In 2018, for instance, 34 players received votes.

While the official Heisman results only go 10 deep, it makes you wonder which schools have, over the years, exerted the most influence on the award.

As a fun exercise, we went back and sifted through all the past voting results and came up with a system to assign each school a point value each time one of its players finished in the top 10 of the Heisman voting.

We gave 10 points for a first-place finish, 9 points for second-place, 8 for third-place, and so on down to 1 point for 10th place.

Remember, this is for entertainment purposes only. Based on total points accumulated, here are the results, updated to account for the 2018 vote:

All-time Heisman Points by School 

1. Notre Dame, 286
2. Oklahoma, 233
3. Ohio State, 216
4. USC, 173
5. Michigan, 153
6. Alabama, 118
7. Texas, 108
8. Penn State, 106
9. Stanford, 104
10. Army, 102
11. UCLA, 98
12. Nebraska, Miami, Florida State, 93
15. Pittsburgh, 88
16. Georgia, 83
17. Florida, 81
18. BYU, 76
19. Michigan State, 75.5
20. Purdue, 74
21. Minnesota, Auburn, 73
23. Navy, Tennessee, 69
25. Iowa, 58

Now, for some more breakdowns of the data:

Top 10 Heisman Teams By Decade

1930s

1. Yale, 26
2. TCU, 20
3. Pittsburgh, 17
4. Tennessee, 12
5. Iowa, Chicago, Notre Dame, 10
8. Army, Nebraska, Colorado, Michigan, 9

Yale captured two Heismans in the abbreviated 1930s. Not all the seasons had 10 finalists, so scoring is less complete than in other decades.

1940s

1. Notre Dame, 84
2. Army, 72
3. (tie) Minnesota, Michigan, SMU, Georgia, 26
7. Penn, 21
8. North Carolina, 18
9. Ohio State, 17
10. Navy, 16

A dominant decade for Notre Dame. Its 84 points in the 1940s is the highest of any team in any decade. Army’s 72 points is the second highest.

1950s

1. Oklahoma, 51
2. Notre Dame, 48
3. Ohio State, 30
4. Michigan State, 28
5. UCLA, 25
6. Kentucky, 23
7 (tie) Iowa, Maryland, 21
9. Army, 20
10 (tie). SMU, Minnesota, Wisconsin, 19

No suprise the Sooners are on top given their success in this era. You can also see Ohio State starting to emerge and some surprising strength from Michigan State.

1960s

1. Notre Dame, 41
2. Purdue, 38
3 (tie) USC, Syracuse, 29
5. UCLA, 27
6. Ohio State, 26
7. Minnesota, 24
8. Michigan State, 22
9 (tie). Texas, Illinois, 21

Notre Dame on top again, but Purdue a strong second thanks to three runner-up finishes in four years. USC first makes it mark, but the Midwest schools still hold sway.

1970s

1. Oklahoma, 65
2. Ohio State, 57
3. USC, 48
4. Notre Dame, 42
5. Penn State, 30
6. Nebraska, 28
7. Michigan, 27
8. Texas, 25
9. Pittsburgh, 21
10 (tie) BYU, Oklahoma St., 16

This list pretty much contains most of the traditional powers of the 1970s, save Alabama. The BYU quarterback lineage starts to bear some fruit here.

1980s

1. BYU, 41
2. Georgia, 33
3. Pittsburgh, 32
4. Miami, 30
5. Nebraska, 27
6. Ohio State, 26
7. Michigan St., 22
8. Notre Dame, 21
9. Michigan, 20
10. USC, 19

BYU placed quarterbacks in the top five of the vote six time in this decade and wins the decade despite not fielding a Heisman winner. It’s the first to date in which no one school was able to produce two winners. Miami makes its first appearance in the top 10.

1990s

1. Florida State, 47
2 (tie). Michigan, Tennessee, 26
4. Florida, 24
5. Penn State, 23
6. Miami, 22
7. Ohio State, 20
8. Alabama, 19
9 (tie) BYU, Colorado, 18

Florida State’s Heisman score mirrors its team’s success in this decade. Florida starts to move up, too, as three SEC teams make the top 10.

2000s

1. Oklahoma, 51
2. USC, 46
3. Florida, 33
4. Texas, 31
5. Miami, 28
6. Arkansas, 18
7. Nebraska, 17
8 (tie) Texas Tech, Notre Dame, West Virginia, 16

Oklahoma wins its third decade thanks to two winners and two runners up. The vacation of one of USC’s three trophies won during this span resulted in a second-place finish for the Trojans.

2010s

1. Alabama, 51
2. Oklahoma, 42
3. Stanford, 39
4. Oregon, Florida State, Clemson 21
7. Wisconsin, 18
8. Ohio State, Auburn, 17
10. Texas A&M, 16

As the decade comes to a close, Alabama moves to the top thanks to one winner and four top 3 finishes. Oklahoma is hot in pursuit with its two winners, while Stanford is a strong third thanks to four Heisman runner-up finishes.

Top Heisman Conferences by total points

Big Ten — 1,017.5
SEC — 682
Pac-12 — 600
Big 12 — 591.5
Notre Dame/Military Academies — 469
ACC — 416
Big East — 152

The Big Ten claims bragging rights among the conferences, thanks in large part to its 16 Heisman winners.