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:
