Athlon's editors have conducted their own Heisman Trophy ceremony — albeit with much less fanfare than the real event in New York City this Saturday evening.

Eight college football minds have voted for their top five contenders in an effort to sort out this whole "Most Outstanding Football Player in College Football" deal. An inverted point system will be used to determine Athlon’s Heisman winner. A first-place vote is worth five points, second is worth four and so on. And, like all good Heisman voters, these were not cast until after this weekend.

Before the results are announced, here is a quick breakdown of the stats and figures for fans to remember when watching Saturday's proceedings.

The Running Backs

Toby Gerhart, Stanford (Sr.)
The big bruising tailback is statistically the best player in college football. The Stanford throwback led the nation in rushing with 1,736 yards and in rushing touchdowns with 26. He also led the nation in carries with 311 rushing attempts, making him arguably the most important player to his team. He has "The Play" on his resume with a fourth-quarter touchdown pass to tie the Notre Dame game. He then scored the game winning touchdown. He carried a redshirt freshman quarterback to an eight win season — the first winning season Stanford has experienced since a 9-3 year in 2001. Gerhart had 10 100-yard rushing games and nine games in which he scored at least two touchdowns. Unfortunately, he plays for a team that lost four games and will be playing in the Sun Bowl.

Mark Ingram, Alabama (So.)
This one is easy. He is the most high-profile player on the best team in the nation. And he showed up big time in the big-time games: Ole Miss, South Carolina, Virginia Tech and Florida. He also became Alabama’s single-season rushing leader with 1,542 yards. He passed Bobby Humphrey’s 1,471-yard mark from 1986 (in one less game). The things that will hurt Ingram, however, are that he plays behind probably the best O-line in the nation and plays on a team that possesses the best defense in America. These are factors that cannot be ignored. He led the SEC in total rushing yards but did not lead the league in rushing according to the NCAA. Anthony Dixon (126.5 ypg) out-gained Ingram (118.6 ypg).

Jacquizz Rodgers, Oregon State (So.)
The diminutive tailback has been stuck in obscurity all season. He is one of only two running backs to score 20 rushing touchdowns this season. He finished third in the Pac-10 in rushing with 1,377 yards in what is easily America’s best running back league. He led the nation in receptions by a running back with 74 catches. That's more receptions than Ingram (30), Gerhart (10) and C.J. Spiller (33) combined. He also led the nation in touches (329 to Gerhart’s and Dion Lewis' 321). He trails only Charles Sims of Houston in receiving yards by a running back (702 to 509). Rodgers also came up big in his head-to-head matchup with Gerhart. He posted nearly 300 yards from scrimmage and four touchdowns in the Beavers' win over Stanford. His loss to Oregon on national TV in the Pac-10 title game hurts him the most even though he posted 137 yards from scrimmage and a touchdown.

C.J. Spiller, Clemson (Sr.)
The Tigers' running back will have easily the lowest rushing totals of any of the big four contenders at this position. But it actually shouldn’t matter because Spiller is the most versatile player on this list. He is used in every way possible: 201 carries, 33 receptions, eight punt returns and 21 kickoff returns. He scored a touchdown in every game and posted the best game of his career in the ACC Championship Game. He combined to score 21 touchdowns in five different ways: Rushing (11), receiving (4), punt return (1), kick return (4) and passing (1). He set an ACC single-season record for all-purpose yards with 2,508 yards. On the negative side, his team did lose five games and will be playing in the Music City Bowl. 

The Quarterbacks

Case Keenum, Houston (Jr.)
Statistically speaking, Keenum was by far the most productive quarterback in the nation for 2009. He led the nation in yards by a dramatic margin (5,449 to 3,268 yards). He led the nation in passing touchdowns with 43. He threw only nine picks and added four rushing touchdowns. He had three wins over BCS conference opponents in Texas Tech, Mississippi State and Oklahoma State. For Keenum to have a chance, he needed to perform big in the C-USA Championship game. Despite 527 passing yards and five touchdowns, he threw three to the wrong team and his Cougars lost the conference title game to East Carolina.

Kellen Moore, Boise State (So.)
Very simply, Moore was the best quarterback in the nation this season. He leads the country in passer efficiency (167.3) and won every game he played. He trails only Houston’s Case Keenum (43) in touchdown passes with 39. In 392 passing attempts, Moore threw only three interceptions and never more than one in a game. As a side note, Moore, in only two seasons, has a career touchdown-interception ratio of 64:13 and a won-loss record of 25-1 as a starter.

Colt McCoy, Texas (Sr.)
McCoy will get all of the ‘career achievement’ votes a la Ricky Williams and Ron Dayne. McCoy will end his career as the winningest quarterback in NCAA history with 44 victories and a shot at one more. He entered the season as Texas’ all-time leading passer and extended it to 13,244 yards (Major Applewhite is second with 8,353). This season he had 3,512 yards, which is good for second best in Texas history behind only himself from last year (3,859). He finished as the Big 12’s leading passer (147.46) and was 19th nationally in passer efficiency.

McCoy’s biggest issue is that he played worse this season in almost every statistical category than last year. He had fewer touchdowns (34 to 27), less yards (3,859 to 3,512), more interceptions (12 to 8), less rushing yards (561 to 348) and fewer rushing touchdowns (11 to 3). Also, despite leading his team on the game-winning drive with less than a minute to go over Nebraska, McCoy played one of the worst game's of his career with 184 yards, 0 TD, 3 INT on Saturday.

Tim Tebow, Florida (Sr.)
It actually is difficult to make a case for Tebow as the Heisman winner. He didn’t lead his conference in passing efficiency, finished 6th in the SEC in passing touchdowns and 7th in the SEC in passing yards (behind names like Cox, Crompton and Snead in both). His 2,413 passing yards and 18 touchdowns are by far the worst totals of his three-year starting career. He did compensate with 859 yards rushing and 13 touchdowns — still both way down from his Heisman year of 2007. Last, he might have made the worst play of his career this Saturday when he tossed an interception to Javier Arenas in the end zone ending Florida’s chances at a comeback over Alabama. College football's greatest leader was dramatically outplayed by Greg McElroy.

The Wild Card

Ndamukong Suh, Nebraska (Sr.)
The massive Cornhusker nose guard was the most dominant defensive player in the nation this season. It culminated with a 12-tackle, 4.5 sack domination of the Longhorns' offensive line in the Big 12 Championship Game. He finished with 50 solo tackles, 32 assists, 19.5 tackles for loss, 12 sacks, 10 passes defensed, one forced fumble, three blocked kicks and one very big interception against Missouri. He is arguably the most talented player in the nation and will be in the conversation for the No. 1 pick in next spring's NFL Draft.

And the winner is....

Player	Team	Pts	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th
Toby Gerhart	Stanford	31	4	2	0	1	1
Mark Ingram	Alabama	29	2	3	1	2	0
Ndamukong Suh	Nebraska	24	1	1	4	1	1
Colt McCoy	Texas	14	1	1	1	1	0
C.J. Spiller	Clemson	11	0	0	2	1	3
Tim Tebow	Florida	6	0	1	0	0	2
Jacquizz Rodgers	Oregon State	3	0	0	0	1	1
Golden Tate	Notre Dame	2	0	0	0	1	0

Stanford running back Toby Gerhart was, according to the powers that be at Athlon Sports, The Most Outstanding Player in college football this fall. He received the most first-place votes with four and appeared on all eight ballots. Ingram finished a close second with two first-place votes. Only three players showed up on all eight ballots: Ingram, Gerhart and Suh. McCoy was left off four of the eight ballots and Tebow was left off five of the eight ballots. Tate was the only receiver and was probably the best wideout in the nation this season.

Athlon's Prediction

As noted above, Athlon would have handed its Heisman Trophy to Toby Gerhart. But what do we actually believe will happen at Saturday's award ceremony? After asking for each editor's ballot, I went back and asked each to predict who actually wins the award. Four people predicted Ingram, three predicted McCoy and one picked Gerhart. Thus, we predict Mark Ingram will win the Heisman Trophy.