SB Nation College Football Hall Of Fame: A Word From The Commissioner

Because there's already been some outrage in various corners of the Internet, permit me a brief point of personal privilege here to talk about some of what might look like some of the more glaring omissions from the inaugural class of the Hall of Fame. I can't and won't presume to speak for all of the selection committee, but I do think I can offer a few insights.

First of all, one of the main reasons we started this Hall of Fame was to try to highlight great players that might not get into the "actual" Hall for one of the various bizarre rules or might not yet be eligible for the actual Hall because of eligibility time frames that are puzzling. (Why should a player's career in the NFL have anything to do with when he's eligible for an organization devoted to college football?)

So when we erred, I think we tried to err on the side of recognizing players that weren't in the Hall of Fame. We didn't go with a direct ban, even though that was proposed, figuring that we didn't want to have anyone else deciding who should go in our Hall of Fame. But the purpose was never to replicate the real Hall of Fame, or there would be no point for it.

The selection committee was also, to an extent, subject to certain constraints. The names we considered were those that were submitted by the communities around SB Nation. Without getting into particulars, one name that has been raised was submitted well after the deadline, something that selection committee members were allowed (but not required) to consider. Another was not submitted at all.

At the same time, let's also keep in mind that this is an attempt to select 20 players from the last 45 years. The chances that we were going to get every deserving candidate in the Hall on the first go-round was less than zero.

Will the SB Nation Hall of Fame be perfect, particularly after just one class has been inducted? No. But we're going to work to make it better next year. This idea started about two months ago, meaning that this first effort was always going to be a little bit of a test to see how things will work. We're already considering ways to make it better next year -- and to hopefully begin addressing some of the issues that cropped up this time and get some of those snubbed players in.

And that is why we cannot stress enough: Keep the comments and criticisms (as long as they're constructive) coming. A Hall of Fame is by definition something that changes and grows, and we want ours to grow as well. And, of course, we want to have fun and not take any of this too seriously -- that's why we all watch and care about this so much in the first place.

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The SB Nation College Football Hall of Fame is a summer project involving all of the network's excellent college football blogs. Each community could nominate five of its own for inclusion, with 10 of those nominees being inducted by our selection committee, which included reps from most FBS conferences. The remaining 10 will be chosen by public vote Wednesday and Thursday.