Bradley, who comments on the Scripps Howard Poll down below, is one of our most insightful posters (when he’s not bashing us)…and he asks this great question:

Why is there no talk of moving the voting back to after all the bowls have been played? It only seems fair. Then you wouldn’t have any of this ‘I would have voted for x’ like happened last year. Also, if things work out this year, we would be watching 4 potential Heisman winners duke it out in the Orange Bowl, rather than 1 winner and 3 finalists. And maybe the winner won’t play as well as one of the other finalists.

This is a great point and something that we will discuss next week in the run up to the award ceremony. We also will touch on overall voter reform–with some thoughts as to how to find a way to build a better collection of Heisman voters.

Did you know that if you are a Heisman voter, you can bequeath it to someone?

More on that later.

Here’s his piece on the USC quarterback.

His ballot right now: 1. Peterson 2. Leinart 3. Smith 4. White 5. Benson

Wow.

The latest Scripps Howard Poll is out now and Jason White and Matt Leinart are in a dead heat. (scroll down on the link)

The race for the Heisman Trophy could be one of the closest in history.

Here is the order–

Jason White, Oklahoma, 42 (5)

Matt Leinart, USC, 42 (4)

Adrian Peterson, Oklahoma, 25

Alex Smith, Utah, 21

Cedric Benson, Texas, 8

Others receiving votes: Aaron Rodgers, QB, California, 6 (1); Jason Campbell, QB, Auburn, 3; J.J. Arrington, RB, California, 2; Carnell Williams, RB, Auburn, 1.

The SHNS has a great story on the Heisman race right here.

Money quotes:

“Leinart and Notre Dame honestly didn’t do much for me,” Mike Griffith of the Knoxville Tennessean said. “Matt Leinart has a lot of great weapons. It’s not his fault he’s not in position to face of a lot of adversity, but we’ve seen Jason White and Alex Smith face more adversity than Leinart. I feel like Jason White and Alex Smith have had more to do with their teams winning.”

“Right now, I’m leaning toward Leinart by a hair,” said Kirk Bohls, a columnist for the Austin American-Statesman who votes in the Scripps Howard poll. “Really, there are about six candidates who are Heisman-worthy.”

Mark Blaudschun, the Boston Globe’s national college football writer and a voter in the Scripps-Howard poll, has had Leinart as his No. 1 choice all season. He said the performance against Notre Dame might have swayed many of the 923 voters. “I don’t think it’s a slam dunk yet, but I think it’s getting close,” Blaudschun said. “If Leinart has a three-interception game against UCLA, he’s not gonna win it. People will change their minds. We’ll see what happens. It’s definitely still a race. But there’s a trend (toward Leinart).”

Blaudschun and several other voters planned to hold their ballots until after Saturday’s games. OU plays Colorado in the Big 12 championship; USC plays UCLA in its regular-season finale.

Though voting has already opened, ballots will be accepted by the New York accounting firm of Deloitte and Touche until 5 p.m. (Eastern) Dec. 8. Many voters might take advantage of an online voting option.

The Sporting News came out with their poll of 30 Heisman voters…unfortunately, it was for their magazine only.

In the poll taken before last Saturday’s games, the top five shaped up like so (first place votes in parentheses):

1. Jason White (14)
2. Matt Leinart (8)
3. Alex Smith (3)
4. Adrian Peterson (2)
5. Reggie Bush (1)

For the week of Nov. 30–

1. USC
2. California
3. Oklahoma
4. Auburn
5. Utah
6. Louisville
7. Va. Tech
8. Texas
9. Miami
10. Iowa

Heismanprojection.com is a great resource to track the votes of the Heisman voters. Be sure to check it out daily and come back here for analysis.