The Grantland Rice Trophy was an annual award presented in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

from 1954 to 2013 to the college football team recognized by the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) as the

National Champions National champions are corporations which are technically private businesses but due to governmental policy are ceded a dominant position in a national economy. In this system, these large organizations are expected not only to seek profit but als ...

. Named for the legendary sportswriter

Grantland Rice Henry Grantland "Granny" Rice (November 1, 1880July 13, 1954) was an early 20th-century American sportswriter known for his elegant prose. His writing was published in newspapers around the country and broadcast on the radio. Early years Rice wa ...

, the trophy was the first national championship award to be presented after the college football

bowl game In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivi ...

s. Through 1991 voting was undertaken by the membership of the FWAA, but after 1992 was conducted amongst a panel of four or five selected writers, initially by a

positional voting system Positional voting is a ranked voting electoral system in which the options or candidates receive points based on their rank position on each ballot and the one with the most points overall wins. The lower-ranked preference in any adjacent pair i ...

but after 1994 by a single-team vote. Beginning in 2002, the FWAA also began issuing a national poll to go along with the Grantland Rice Trophy. The top team in the final poll was awarded the trophy. The trophy itself consisted of a bronze football atop a four-sided pedestal. On August 26, 2010, the FWAA announced that the 2004 award presented to the

USC Trojans The USC Trojans are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Southern California (USC), located in Los Angeles, California. While the men's teams are nicknamed the ''Trojans'', the women's athletic teams are referred ...

had been rescinded, the first time in the award's history that a winner has vacated the honor. The FWAA declined to name a replacement for that year's award. With the advent of the

College Football Playoff The College Football Playoff (CFP) is an annual postseason knockout invitational tournament to determine a national champion for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), the highest level ...

(CFP) for the 2014 season, the FWAA quietly retired the Grantland Rice Trophy, joining with the

National Football Foundation The National Football Foundation (NFF) is a non-profit organization to promote and develop amateur American football on all levels throughout the United States and "developing the qualities of leadership, sportsmanship, competitive zeal and the dr ...

(NFF) to instead publish the FWAA-NFF Grantland Rice Super 16 Poll during the regular season, with the CFP champion automatically receiving the NFF's

MacArthur Bowl The MacArthur Bowl is a trophy awarded annually by the National Football Foundation (NFF) (owners and operators of the College Football Hall of Fame) to the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision college football team(s) that are recognized by ...

Trophy.

Winners

Source: FWAA

By school

References

External links

Official site
{{College Football National Championship award navbox College football championship trophies

Winners

By school

See also

References

External links