Sporting News has selected Georgia running back Herschel Walker as the greatest player in college football's 150-year history as part of our “CFB 150” celebration.
The fact SN's 54-person voting panel selected Walker is no surprise. The star running back who rushed for 5,259 yards and 49 touchdowns from 1980-82, won the Heisman Trophy and led the Bulldogs to a national championship in 1980 would be considered on most lists of this sort. It’s the margin of victory that surprised us.
CFB 150: Top 10 college football players of all time
Walker received 455 points from our ballots, which awarded points on a 10-1 scale (10 points given to the top player, one to the 10th-ranked player). So, Walker got 84.3 percent of a maximum of 540 points. Walker also had the most first-place votes: 31 of our 54 voters, comprised of former college players and media from all the regions of the country, voted Walker as their No. 1 player. Forty-eight of the 54 ballots had him in the top five.
For comparison, Florida quarterback Tim Tebow finished second in both No.1 votes (eight) and points (286) and still finished 169 points behind Walker.
In the interest of transparency, here are the points totals for the 80 college football players who received votes in those 54 ballots:
| Rank | Player | No. 1 votes | Total points |
| 1 | Herschel Walker, RB, Georgia | 31 | 455 |
| 2 | Tim Tebow, QB, Florida | 8 | 286 |
| 3 | Barry Sanders, RB, Oklahoma State | 3 | 257 |
| 4 | Bo Jackson, RB, Auburn | 0 | 215 |
| 5 | Archie Griffin, RB, Ohio State | 2 | 202 |
| 6 | Charles Woodson, CB, Michigan | 0 | 140 |
| 7 | Red Grange, RB, Illinois | 2 | 109 |
| 8 | Tommie Frazier, QB, Nebraska | 1 | 98 |
| 9 | Tony Dorsett, RB, Pitt | 1 | 97 |
| 10 | Jim Thorpe, RB, Carlisle | 3 | 95 |
| 11 | Orlando Pace, T, Ohio State | 0 | 70 |
| 12 | Derrick Thomas, LB, Alabama | 0 | 69 |
| 13 | Vince Young, QB, Texas | 0 | 68 |
| 14 | Reggie Bush, RB, USC | 0 | 62 |
| 15 | Deion Sanders, CB, Florida State | 0 | 61 |
| 16 (T) | Hugh Green, DE, Pitt | 0 | 59 |
| 16 (T) | Dick Butkus, LB, Illinois | 0 | 59 |
| 18 | Earl Campbell, RB, Texas | 1 | 58 |
| 19 | Randy Moss, WR, Marshall | 0 | 38 |
| 20 | Cam Newton, QB, Auburn | 1 | 37 |
| 21 | Lee Roy Selmon, DE-DT, Oklahoma | 0 | 32 |
| 22 | Marcus Allen, RB, USC | 0 | 29 |
| 23 | Bronko Nagurski, FB/T, Minnesota | 0 | 27 |
| 24 | Roger Staubach, QB, Navy | 0 | 25 |
| 25 | John Hannah, G, Alabama | 0 | 22 |
| 26 | Jim Brown, RB, Syracuse | 0 | 21 |
| 27 | Ndamukong Suh, DT, Nebraska | 0 | 18 |
| 28 | Johnny Rodgers, RB, Nebraska | 0 | 16 |
| 29 (T) | Doug Flutie, QB, Boston College | 0 | 14 |
| 29 (T) | Dave Rimington, C, Nebraska | 0 | 14 |
| 31 | Kenny Easley, S, UCLA | 0 | 13 |
| 32 | Bubba Smith, DE, Michigan State | 0 | 12 |
| 33 | Sammy Baugh, QB, TCU | 0 | 11 |
| 34 (T) | Brian Bosworth, LB, Oklahoma | 0 | 10 |
| 34 (T) | Glenn Davis, RB, Army | 0 | 10 |
| 34 (T) | Doak Walker, RB, SMU | 0 | 10 |
| 37 (T) | George Connor, T/LB, Notre Dame | 0 | 9 |
| 37 (T) | Reggie White, DE, Tennessee | 0 | 9 |
| 39 (T) | Peyton Manning, QB, Tennessee | 0 | 8 |
| 39 (T) | Ki-Jana Carter, RB, Penn State | 0 | 8 |
| 41 (T) | Lawrence Taylor, LB, North Carolina | 0 | 7 |
| 41 (T) | O.J. Simpson, RB, USC | 0 | 7 |
| 41 (T) | Howard Cassady, RB, Ohio State | 0 | 7 |
| 41 (T) | Ronnie Lott, S, USC | 0 | 7 |
| 45 (T) | Don Hutson, WR, Alabama | 0 | 6 |
| 45 (T) | Chic Harley, RB, Ohio State | 0 | 6 |
| 45 (T) | Ricky Williams, RB, Texas | 0 | 6 |
| 45 (T) | Sean Taylor, S, Miami | 0 | 6 |
| 45 (T) | Archie Manning, QB, Ole Miss | 0 | 6 |
| 45 (T) | Mike Singletary, LB, Baylor | 0 | 6 |
| 45 (T) | Marcus Mariota, QB, Oregon | 0 | 6 |
| 52 (T) | Eric Dickerson, RB, SMU | 0 | 5 |
| 52 (T) | Ross Browner, DE, Notre Dame | 0 | 5 |
| 52 (T) | Bennie Oosterbaan, WR, Michigan | 0 | 5 |
| 52 (T) | Christian McCaffrey, RB, Stanford | 0 | 5 |
| 52 (T) | Ted Hendricks, LB, Miami | 0 | 5 |
| 52 (T) | Anthony Carter, WR, Michigan | 0 | 5 |
| 58 (T) | Anthony Munoz, T, USC | 0 | 4 |
| 58 (T) | LaVar Arrington, LB, Penn State | 0 | 4 |
| 58 (T) | Raghib Ismail, WR, Notre Dame | 0 | 4 |
| 58 (T) | Tom Harmon, RB, Michigan | 0 | 4 |
| 62 (T) | Desmond Howard, WR, Michigan | 0 | 3 |
| 62 (T) | Chuck Bednarik, LB/C, Penn | 0 | 3 |
| 62 (T) | Billy Sims, RB, Oklahoma | 0 | 3 |
| 62 (T) | Kellen Winslow, TE, Missouri | 0 | 3 |
| 62 (T) | Baker Mayfield, QB, Oklahoma | 0 | 3 |
| 67 (T) | Ed Reed, S, Miami | 0 | 2 |
| 67 (T) | Kenny Washington, RB, UCLA | 0 | 2 |
| 67 (T) | Joe Greene, DT, North Texas | 0 | 2 |
| 67 (T) | Ernie Davis, RB, Syracuse | 0 | 2 |
| 67 (T) | Bruce Smith, DE, Virginia Tech | 0 | 2 |
| 67 (T) | Jerry Rice, WR, Mississippi Valley State | 0 | 2 |
| 73 (T) | Neil Lomax, QB, Portland State | 0 | 1 |
| 73 (T) | Leon Hart, FB/DE Notre Dame | 0 | 1 |
| 73 (T) | Terrell Suggs, DE-LB, Arizona State | 0 | 1 |
| 73 (T) | Steve McNair, QB, Alcorn State | 0 | 1 |
| 73 (T) | Ron Dayne, RB, Wisconsin | 0 | 1 |
| 73 (T) | Derrick Brooks, LB, Florida State | 0 | 1 |
| 73 (T) | Jonathan Ogden, T, UCLA | 0 | 1 |
| 73 (T) | Charles White, RB, USC | 0 | 1 |
