Thirty-six FBS programs have never had a player finish in the top 10 of Heisman Trophy voting. Vanderbilt is the only Power Five program on that list.
The Commodores, who have fielded a team each year since the Heisman Trophy was first awarded in 1935, have never had a player come remotely close to sniffing the most prestigious individual award in college sports. The Sun Belt has the most programs without a Top-10 finisher of any conference (11), followed by Conference USA (10) and the MAC (seven).
Of the 64 Power Five programs (including Notre Dame) with a top-10 finisher, Minnesota has the longest drought. Defensive lineman Bobby Bell — who led the Gophers to the 1960 national championship — finished third in 1962. Duke (1963) and Wake Forest (1964) are not far behind.
Duke and Wake Forest are the only two ACC teams without a top-10 finisher since 2000. Iowa State (1996) and Kansas (1973) hold that honor for the Big 12; Illinois (1982), Maryland (1983) and Minnesota in the Big Ten; Arizona State (1996) in the Pac-12; and Kentucky (1998) and Tennessee (1997) in the SEC.
Here is the full list (If a program has multiple players in the most recent year, the player who finished higher is listed):
| Team | Player | Year | Place |
|---|---|---|---|
| Air Force | Beau Morgan | 1996 | 10 |
| Akron | – | – | – |
| Alabama | Jonathan Allen | 2016 | 7 |
| Appalachian State | – | – | – |
| Arizona | Scooby Wright | 2014 | 9 |
| Arizona State | Jake Plummer | 1996 | 3 |
| Arkansas | Ryan Mallett | 2010 | 7 |
| Arkansas State | – | – | – |
| Army | Mike Mayweather | 1990 | 10 |
| Auburn | Tre Mason | 2013 | 6 |
| Ball State | Nate Davis | 2008 | 8 |
| Baylor | Bryce Petty | 2014 | 10 |
| Boise State | Kellen Moore | 2011 | 8 |
| Boston College | Andre Williams | 2013 | 4 |
| Bowling Green | Brian McClure | 1985 | 10 |
| Buffalo | – | – | – |
| BYU | Ty Detmer | 1991 | 3 |
| California | J.J. Arrington | 2004 | 8 |
| Central Michigan | – | – | – |
| Charlotte | – | – | – |
| Cincinnati | Mardy Gilyard | 2009 | 9 |
| Clemson | Deshaun Watson | 2016 | 2 |
| Coastal Carolina | – | – | – |
| Colorado | Chris Brown | 2002 | 8 |
| Colorado State | – | – | – |
| Connecticut | – | – | – |
| Duke | Jay Wilkinson | 1963 | 9 |
| East Carolina | Jeff Blake | 1991 | 7 |
| Eastern Michigan | – | – | – |
| FIU | – | – | – |
| Florida | Tim Tebow | 2009 | 5 |
| Florida Atlantic | – | – | – |
| Florida State | Dalvin Cook | 2016 | 9 |
| Fresno State | Derek Carr | 2013 | 8 |
| Georgia | Jarvis Jones | 2012 | 10 |
| Georgia Southern | – | – | – |
| Georgia State | – | – | – |
| Georgia Tech | Calvin Johnson | 2006 | 10 |
| Hawai'i | Colt Brennan | 2007 | 3 |
| Houston | Case Keenum | 2011 | 7 |
| Idaho | – | – | – |
| Illinois | Tony Eason | 1982 | 8 |
| Indiana | Tevin Coleman | 2014 | 7 |
| Iowa | Shonn Greene | 2008 | 6 |
| Iowa State | Troy Davis | 1996 | 2 |
| Kansas | Dave Jaynes | 1973 | 4 |
| Kansas State | Collin Klein | 2012 | 3 |
| Kent State | – | – | – |
| Kentucky | Tim Couch | 1998 | 4 |
| Louisiana Tech | Tim Rattay | 1999 | 10 |
| Louisiana-Lafayette | – | – | – |
| Louisiana-Monroe | – | – | – |
| Louisville | Lamar Jackson | 2016 | 1 |
| LSU | Leonard Fournette | 2015 | 6 |
| Marshall | Byron Leftwich | 2002 | 6 |
| Maryland | Boomer Esiason | 1983 | 10 |
| Massachusetts | – | – | – |
| Memphis | DeAngelo Williams | 2005 | 7 |
| Miami (FL) | Willis McGahee | 2002 | 4 |
| Miami (OH) | Ben Roethlisberger | 2003 | 9 |
| Michigan | Jabrill Peppers | 2016 | 5 |
| Michigan State | Connor Cook | 2016 | 9 |
| Middle Tennessee | – | – | – |
| Minnesota | Bobby Bell | 1962 | 3 |
| Mississippi State | Dak Prescott | 2014 | 8 |
| Missouri | Chase Daniel | 2007 | 4 |
| Navy | Keenan Reynolds | 2015 | 5 |
| Nebraska | Ndamukong Suh | 2009 | 4 |
| Nevada | Colin Kaepernick | 2010 | 8 |
| New Mexico | – | – | – |
| New Mexico State | Pervis Atkins | 1960 | |
| North Carolina | Julius Peppers | 2001 | 10 |
| North Carolina State | Philip Rivers | 2003 | 7 |
| North Texas | – | – | – |
| Northern Illinois | Jordan Lynch | 2013 | 3 |
| Northwestern | Damien Anderson | 2000 | 5 |
| Notre Dame | Manti Te'o | 2012 | 2 |
| Ohio | – | – | – |
| Ohio State | Ezekiel Elliott | 2015 | 8 |
| Oklahoma | Baker Mayfield | 2016 | 3 |
| Oklahoma State | Justin Blackmon | 2010 | 5 |
| Old Dominion | – | – | – |
| Ole Miss | Eli Manning | 2003 | 4 |
| Oregon | Marcus Mariota | 2014 | 1 |
| Oregon State | Ken Simonton | 2000 | 9 |
| Penn State | Michael Robinson | 2005 | 5 |
| Pittsburgh | Larry Fitzgerald | 2003 | 2 |
| Purdue | Drew Brees | 2000 | 3 |
| Rice | Tommy Kramer | 1976 | 5 |
| Rutgers | Ray Rice | 2006 | 7 |
| San Diego State | Donnel Pumphrey | 2016 | 10 |
| San Jose State | – | – | – |
| SMU | Eric Dickerson | 1982 | 3 |
| South Alabama | – | – | – |
| South Carolina | Jadeveon Clowney | 2012 | 6 |
| South Florida | – | – | – |
| Southern Miss | Reggie Collier | 1981 | 9 |
| Stanford | Christian McCaffrey | 2016 | 9 |
| Syracuse | Dwight Freeney | 2001 | 9 |
| TCU | Trevone Boykin | 2015 | 10 |
| Temple | Paul Palmer | 1986 | |
| Tennessee | Peyton Manning | 1997 | 2 |
| Texas | D'Onta Foreman | 2016 | 8 |
| Texas A&M | Johnny Manziel | 2013 | 5 |
| Texas State | – | – | – |
| Texas Tech | Graham Harrell | 2008 | 4 |
| Toledo | Gene Swick | 1975 | 10 |
| Troy | – | – | – |
| Tulane | Shaun King | 1998 | 10 |
