Given that the presenting sponsor of this latest award is the Allstate Sugar Bowl, it would make sense that the SEC is very well-represented for the honor.
Thursday, the Manning Award, named in honor of the quarterbacking Mannings — Archie, Peyton and Eli — announced the field of 12 finalists for this year’s award, the only major trophy to take into account postseason performance. Of those dozen finalists, four of them (LSU’s Joe Burrow, Georgia’s Jake Fromm, Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa, Florida’s Kyle Trask) hail from the SEC.
Fromm and Tagovailoa were also finalists for last year’s award, as was Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence, who is the only ACC signal-caller in the group.
Speaking of flying solo, Jalen Hurts is the only quarterback from the Big 12 in this year’s field, but he could give Oklahoma back-to-back-to-back winners as Baker Mayfield won the award in 2017 and Kyler Murray won it the following season.
Aside from the SEC, the AAC, Big Ten and Pac-12 were the only conferences with more than one finalist. There are also five seniors as well as four seniors and three sophomores spread out among the finalists.
