Walter Payton Award

The Walter Payton Award is awarded annually to the most outstanding offensive player in the Division I Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) of college football as chosen by a nationwide panel of media and college sports information directors. The honor was first given in 1987 to the outstanding player in the division, but in 1995, eligibility was restricted to offensive players, as the Buck Buchanan Award for defensive players was inaugurated.

The bust was named in honor of the late National Football League (NFL) legend Walter Payton, who starred at Jackson State University.

Among the many schools in the division, only seven schools have won it twice: Appalachian State, Colgate, Eastern Washington, Georgia Southern, Idaho, New Hampshire, and Villanova. In 2009, Armanti Edwards from Appalachian State became the first player to receive the award twice.

Past finalists

 * 2005: Erik Meyer of Eastern Washington, Ricky Santos of New Hampshire and Nick Hartigan of Brown University.
 * 2006: Ricky Santos of New Hampshire, Jason Murietta of Northern Arizona and Arkee Whitlock of Southern Illinois
 * 2007: Jayson Foster of Georgia Southern, Eric Sanders of Northern Iowa and Josh Johnson of San Diego
 * 2008: Armanti Edwards of Appalachian State Rodney Landers of James Madison and Herb Donaldson of Western Illinois
 * 2009: Armanti Edwards of Appalachian State, Terrell Hudgins of Elon College and Deji Karim of Southern Illinois
 * 2010: Matt Barr of Western Illinois, DeAndre Presley of Appalachian State and Jeremy Moses of Stephen F. Austin
 * 2011: Shakir Bell of Indiana State, Chris Lum of Lehigh, and Bo Levi Mitchell of Eastern Washington
 * 2012: Eric Breitenstein of Wofford, Taylor Heinicke of Old Dominion, and Miguel Maysonet of Stony Brook