As the 2016-17 college football campaign heads into its final stretch with bowl games and the College Football Playoff on the horizon, the United States Sports Academy’s College Football Game of the Week series recognizes the season’s most thrilling games, which will ultimately compete for the coveted Game of the Year selection.
Here are the College Football Game of the Week Award winners for college football’s regular season:
Week 1: The Texas Longhorns upset Notre Dame 50-47 in double overtime.
Week 2: The Arkansas Razorbacks top the Texas Christian University Horned Frogs 41-38 in double overtime.
Week 3: North Dakota State upsets the Iowa Hawkeyes 23-21.
Week 4: Duke defeats Notre Dame 38-33.
Week 5: Tennessee uses a Hail Mary pass from quarterback Josh Dobbs to beat Georgia 34-31.
Week 6: Navy upsets the previously undefeated Houston Cougars 46-40.
Week 7: Ohio State rallies to beat Wisconsin 30-23 in overtime.
Week 8: Penn State returns a blocked field goal for a touchdown to beat Ohio State 24-21.
Week 9: Texas kicks a late field goal to upset Baylor 35-34.
Week 10: Mississippi State shocks Texas A&M 35-28.
Week 11: Pittsburgh stuns previously undefeated Clemson 43-42.
Week 12: Houston upsets No. 3 Louisville 36-10.
Week 13: Ohio State beats rival Michigan 30-27 in double overtime.
Week 14: Penn State rallies to beat Wisconsin 38-31 in the Big Ten Conference title game.
For the eleventh consecutive year, the Academy is conducting its College Football Game of the Year Award, which was developed in 2005 to pay tribute to a team whose efforts in a college football game exemplify the principles of high athletic endeavor, complete dedication to victory, and unified team effort.
A blue ribbon panel of 17 members consisting of former college football coaches and athletic directors and including Academy faculty selects the weekly winner of the Academy’s College Football Game of the Week Award by ballot. The committee is chaired by former U.S. Naval Academy athletic director Jack Lengyel. At the conclusion of the college football season, the panel selects the Academy’s College Football Game of the Year.
At the conclusion of the 2016-17 bowl season, the committee will select its favorite game from the bowl season and the College Football Playoff. Then, the committee will select a Game of the Year from the list of the season’s Game of the Week winners.
Past winners of the Academy’s Game of the Year Award include Rutgers University in 2006, Appalachian State University in 2007, Texas Tech University in 2008, the University of Alabama in 2009, 2011, and 2015, Auburn University in 2010 and 2013,Texas A&M University in 2012, and Ohio State University in 2014.
The College Football Game of the Year Award is part of the Academy’s Awards of Sport series, a function of the American Sport Art Museum and Archives (ASAMA), which was established as “a tribute to the artist and the athlete.”
Each year at the conclusion of the college football season painter Daniel Moore, the ASAMA 2005 Sport Artist of the Year, is commissioned by the Academy to render a painting depicting a memorable and pivotal moment to commemorate the selected College Football Game of the Year. In addition, the Academy contributes $5,000 to the winning university’s scholarship fund.
Based in Daphne, Ala., the United States Sports Academy is an independent, non-profit, accredited, special mission sports university created to serve the nation and world with programs in instruction, research, and service. The role of the Academy is to prepare men and women for careers in the profession of sports. For more information about the Academy, call (251) 626-3303 or visit www.ussa.edu .
Founded in 1984, ASAMA is dedicated to the preservation of sports art, history, and literature. The ASAMA collection is composed of nearly 2,000 works of sport art across a variety of media, including paintings, sculptures, assemblages, prints and photographs. The museum is open free to the public from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. For more information, go to www.asama.org.
By Eric Mann
Eric Mann is the communications assistant at the United States Sports Academy. Reach him at emann@ussa.edu.