2006 College Football Blogger Awards

So, I mentioned that these were in the works and now they've taken shape. The award categories have been named and nominations are now being accepted. First the nomination process as described by Joel at Rocky Top Talk.

The Nomination Process

All right, so here's how the nomination process will work. It's like a Roundtable. Nominate, in a post on your site, whomever you like for whatever you like. One plea: please don't neglect the individual post awards, as nominations in that area are going to be a little thin. You have two weeks, or until Friday, December 22. We plan to announce the nominees on January 2, open the voting for a week, and have an all-day awards presentation on Wednesday, January 10, two days after the National Championship Game. All dates are tentative at this point.
Remember that we're going to do this combo-style. Once we close the nominations, we'll try to pull 3-6 nominees in each category. 2-4 of these we'll pick from the tops of the open vote-getters. Each category will have one or two "editors choice" nominees selected by a panel in an effort to get deserving but less popular blogs in front of the voters.

General nomination rules: You cannot nominate yourself or any of your own posts for any of the awards, except for the I Wanna Talk About Me Free for All, where you MUST select your own posts. Important: As you draft your Roundtable response, don't just nominate somebody, say something nice about why they deserve consideration. Those bloggers posting the best comments will be the "presenters" in the award posts, which is another way the lesser-known blogs can end up with links on award day.

Once you finish your Roundtable, DON'T FORGET to post a link to your nomination post in the comment thread of this post, or else we might not ever see them. ALSO, head on over to Brian's Nomination Gizmo, and enter your nominations there as well, which will assist with the compilation and crunching of numbers.

If you have suggestions for improving the name of any particular award, include it in your nomination.

Again, this is all experimental, so expect some SNAFUs, etc. Happy nominating.

And now the 2006 College Football Blogger Award Categories:

Awards for Blogs

The Dr. Z Award

FOR: Cogent, interesting analysis.

CRITERIA: Emphasis placed on statistical manipulation, well researched pieces that reveal something new, and/or solid argumentative pieces that function as the authoritative last word on a subject.

The Trev Alberts Quits To Do Construction Award

FOR: comic relief; overall hilarity.

CRITERIA: The funniest college football blog.

The Sports Fans Don't Cry Award

FOR: The blog that has suffered through its chosen team's dismal season with the most dignity.

CRITERIA: Continued engagement in the face of crippling, misery-inducing defeat. A stiff-upper lip and sane reaction to everything crumbling to dust.

The Keith Jackson Circa 1995 Award

FOR: The blog with the most consistently expressive and excellent writing.

CRITERIA: Mechanical competency, yes, but the ability to turn a devastatingly funny phrase or write something compelling is probably more important. This isn't an award for copy editing; it's an award for kickin' prose.

The Brady Quinn Award

FOR: The prettiest blog, the best layout and design.

CRITERIA: An aesthetic appeal, whether from a stylish banner, a pleasing layout, or an eye-catching incorporation of blog technology.

The New Blog on the Block Award

FOR: The best new college football blog.

CRITERIA: Must have launched sometime after last year's national championship game. Transitioning to a new blog or affiliating with a network mid-stream doesn't count.

The LOL, MSM Award

FOR: The blog best keeping tabs on the man and calling out all of the injustices in the college football world.

CRITERIA: Consistently ahead-of-the-curve on controversial issues in college football.

The Best Community Interaction Award

FOR: The blog with the best community interaction.

CRITERIA: A regular solicitation of input from readers and utilization of reader-produced content.

Awards for Posts

The Tyrone Prothro And His Amazing Catch Award

FOR: The finest individual post of the college football year.

CRITERIA: Best post for whatever reason.

The Chris Berman Antimatter Award

FOR: The best contribution to the lingo of our little interniche, be it a nickname, neologism, or catchy phrase used with frequency.

CRITERIA: Spread is important. The ideal candidate has been universally adopted by anyone with cause to use the term.

The Old Faithful Award

FOR: The best recurring feature of the year.

CRITERIA: The feature should be posted weekly and be generally good and stuff.

The That's Not Really Real Award

FOR: The best photoshop or other counterfeit gag of the year.

CRITERIA: Could be a photoshop, a Motivational Poster, an On Notice
Board, or something similar, as long as it elicited more than a mere
smile.

The You Talkin' To Me Award

FOR: The best back and forth between rival blogs the week before a rivalry game.

CRITERIA: Must be bi-directional, and both blogs must score points against each other. A unilateral beat-down will not suffice. Should be more in the spirit of fun than wildly abusive.

The I'm Just Like You But I Have a Podcast Award

FOR: The best podcast or podcaster of the year.

CRITERIA: Uh, must be audio. And about college football, you know.
Note that this is "podcast" in a really broad sense. Parody songs,
incoherent ravings about Tyrone Willingham, and whatever else you've got
are nominate-able. One restriction: it has to be self-generated.

Blogger Championship Series

...it's just like that other BCS except completely different. We'll be handing out Best Blog awards for each of the BCS conferences, plus one for mid-major coverage (including all independents other than Notre Dame), and one for more general, national coverage blogs. After long debate we decided to put Notre Dame blogs in with the Big East, as the "non-BCS" category is supposed to be an award for mid-majors, which Notre Dame is certainly not. Since ND shares bowl affiliations with the Big East and plays the rest of their sports there, it seemed the logical choice.

The I Wanna Talk About Me Free for All

The I Wanna Talk About Me Free for All is designed primarily to spread the love in case it doesn't naturally happen some other way and to serve as the season's Round Up of Round Ups. Each blogger, no matter who they are, must identify their three best posts of the year. I'll round `em up, and compile the entire thing. If it kills me. And it might.

Whew, that is a lot of information!

Ok, so what do I need from you, my loyal readers. First and foremost let's make this all about me, so I need your help in selecting my three "best" posts of the year(as if you could pick just three). Anyway, if you have any suggestions for that category let me know in the comment section. Secondly, I need your help with any of the other categories, as well. I know many of you hit all of the major blogs daily, so let me know if you have any favorite regular features or know of any especially fabulous posts, and please put those in the comments as well. Lastly, I will be taking your feedback and then rolling out my nominations a few at a time, so as not to overwhelm either you or me. And I almost forgot, the nomination process is open to anyone, so you, too can get involved by using Brian's Nomination Gizmo as well.