Walter Payton Award

This article is about the college football award. For the professional football award, see Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award. For the high school football award, see Walter Payton Trophy.

The Walter Payton Award is awarded annually to the most outstanding offensive player in the NCAA 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.^[1] The honor was first given 38 years ago 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.

Walter Payton Award

Walter Payton Award
Awarded for	"Most outstanding offensive player in the Division I Football Championship Subdivision"
Country	United States
Presented by	Stats Perform
History
First award	1987, 38 years ago
Most recent	Tommy Mellott, QB Montana State
Website	www.fcs.football

The award was named in honor of National Football League (NFL) legend Walter Payton, who starred at Jackson State University in the early 1970s.^[2]

Up until presentations for the 2014 season, the Payton and Buchanan Awards were awarded by The Sports Network. Since STATS LLC, now known as Stats Perform, acquired The Sports Network in February 2015, it has presented all of the major FCS awards.

The most recent winner of the award is Tommy Mellott, a quarterback from Montana State who earned the honor during the 2024 season.

The award was named to honor college and NFL star Walter Payton

Armanti Edwards was the first player to win the award more than once (2008, 2009).

Winners

Year	Winner	School	Position	Ref.
1987	Kenny Gamble	Colgate	RB	[3]
1988	Dave Meggett	Towson State	RB	[3]
1989	John Friesz	Idaho	QB	[3]
1990	Walter Dean	Grambling	RB	[3]
1991	Jamie Martin	Weber State	QB	[3]
1992	Michael Payton	Marshall	QB	[3]
1993	Doug Nussmeier	Idaho	QB	[3]
1994	Steve McNair	Alcorn State	QB	[3]
1995	Dave Dickenson	Montana	QB	[3]
1996	Archie Amerson	Northern Arizona	RB	[3]
1997	Brian Finneran	Villanova	WR	[3]
1998	Jerry Azumah	New Hampshire	RB	[3]
1999	Adrian Peterson	Georgia Southern	RB	[3]
2000	Louis Ivory	Furman	RB	[3]
2001	Brian Westbrook	Villanova	RB	[3]
2002	Tony Romo	Eastern Illinois	QB	[3]
2003	Jamaal Branch	Colgate	RB	[3]
2004	Lang Campbell	William & Mary	QB	[3]
2005	Erik Meyer	Eastern Washington	QB	[3]
2006	Ricky Santos	New Hampshire	QB	[3]
2007	Jayson Foster	Georgia Southern	QB	[3]
2008	Armanti Edwards	Appalachian State	QB	[3]
2009
2010	Jeremy Moses	Stephen F. Austin	QB	[3]
2011	Bo Levi Mitchell	Eastern Washington	QB	[3]
2012	Taylor Heinicke	Old Dominion	QB	[3]
2013	Jimmy Garoppolo	Eastern Illinois	QB	[3]
2014	John Robertson	Villanova	QB	[3]
2015	Cooper Kupp	Eastern Washington	WR	[4]
2016	Jeremiah Briscoe	Sam Houston State	QB	[4]
2017
2018	Devlin Hodges	Samford	QB	[4]
2019	Trey Lance	North Dakota State	QB	[4]
2020	Cole Kelley	Southeastern Louisiana	QB	[4]
2021	Eric Barriere	Eastern Washington	QB	[4]
2022	Lindsey Scott Jr.	Incarnate Word	QB	[4]
2023	Mark Gronowski	South Dakota State	QB	[4]
2024	Tommy Mellott	Montana State	QB	[4]

Awards won by school

This is a list of the colleges and universities who have had a player win a Walter Payton Award. Among the many schools in the division, only nine have claimed more than one award, and only seven have had more than one player win the award. Eastern Washington has had four players win the award, Villanova has had three players win the award, and five have had two players win: Colgate, Georgia Southern, Idaho, New Hampshire, and Eastern Illinois. Two players have won the award twice, with both being the only players from their institutions to win. In 2009, Armanti Edwards from Appalachian State became the first to receive the award twice,^[5] followed in 2017 by Jeremiah Briscoe from Sam Houston State.^[6][a] In 2019, Trey Lance of North Dakota State was the first freshman to receive the award.^[7]

School	Awards
Eastern Washington	4
Villanova	3
Appalachian State^	2
Colgate
Eastern Illinois
Georgia Southern^
Idaho
New Hampshire
Sam Houston^
Alcorn State	1
Furman
Grambling
Incarnate Word
Marshall^
Montana
Montana State
North Dakota State
Northern Arizona
North Dakota State
Old Dominion^
Samford
South Dakota State
Southeastern Louisiana
Stephen F. Austin
Towson
Weber State
William & Mary

^ Team is now a member of the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS).