Through a bizarre turn of events that probably included some sort of clerical error, I was awarded a Heisman Trophy vote this year. (Actually, the two voters Columbus had last year left for other papers, so I was given a vote in their place.)

Although I have voted for the Naismith Award in basketball, I've never voted for the Heisman. It seems like I picked a good year to join the fun.

Honestly, you couldn't go wrong if you picked any of this year's three frontrunners -- Oklahoma's Sam Bradford, Texas' Colt McCoy or Florida's Tim Tebow.

Two other players I considered briefly were Texas Tech's Graham Harrell and Michael Crabtree. The Red Raiders' stinkbomb of a performance at Oklahoma certainly didn't help their cause. Harrell dropped off my radar because of that game. Looking closer at Crabtree, he didn't have as good of a season statistically as he did last year, so I kept him off my ballot (you get to vote for the top three places).

That left Bradford, McCoy and Tebow, all of whom have put up ridiculous numbers this year.

• Bradford: 302-443, 4,464 yards, 68.3%, 48 TD, 6 INT, 186.3 rating, 65 rushing yards, 5 TD
• McCoy: 291-375, 3,445 yards, 77.6%, 32 TD, 7 INT, 128 carries, 576 rushing yards, 10 TD
• Tebow: 174-268, 2,515 yards, 64.9%, 28 TD, 2 INT, 176.7 rating, 564 rushing yards, 12 TD

This is where it got tricky. Tebow's numbers aren't as great as the other two, but in 10 of 13 games this year, he played against a defense that was ranked in the top 37 nationally. Bradford only faced three defenses in the top 50. McCoy didn't face one ranked higher than 65th.

Now, I take that with a grain of salt. Are SEC defenses ranked so high because it was a brutal year for SEC offenses? Is the Big 12 really that big of a sieve on defense or are the numbers skewed because the conference has a class of quarterbacks that are truly outstanding?

Ultimately, this is what my ballot looked like:

1. Bradford
2. Tebow
3. McCoy

I went with Bradford for his consistently great production all season. The sophomore threw for more than 300 yards in all but two games. He had three or more touchdown passes in 10 games this year. And down the stretch, when Oklahoma needed to win -- and do so impressively to move up in the BCS -- he was nearly perfect, throwing for 1,378 yards, with 14 touchdowns and no interceptions in the Sooners' final four games, including a 34-for-49, 384-yard performance in the Big 12 title game.

You could argue that Bradford had more weapons at his disposal at Oklahoma than Tebow did at Florida and McCoy did at Texas, but I don't see why that should be a detriment. You play the hand you're dealt, and Bradford did it to near perfection.

Even in Oklahoma's one loss -- a 45-35 defeat to Texas -- he went 28-for-39 for 387 yards and five touchdowns. The Sooners defense lost that game. I don't hold that against him just like I don't hold it against McCoy that a safety dropped a sure interception that would have prevented Texas' only loss to Texas Tech.

Anyway, I can see the case for Tebow or McCoy as well and wouldn't argue against any voter that put either of them No. 1 on his or her ballot.

Tebow performed great down the stretch and was magnificent in the SEC title game. He did get off to a relatively slow start this year, though, and in a tight race like this, that hurt him a little bit in my opinion.

McCoy was every bit the passing and running threat that Tebow was and, as mentioned before, didn't have the same supporting cast as Bradford. Still, he played an even easier schedule than Bradford, who faced two tough non-conference defenses in TCU and Cincinnati. And despite facing practically the same Big 12 schedule, his stats, while amazing, aren't quite up to par with Bradford, who threw for 16 touchdown passes and over 1,000 yards more than McCoy, which I thought more than made up for McCoy's sizeable rushing advantage.

So there you have it. My reasoning for the Heisman.

Feel free to post your thoughts on how you would have voted and rip my reasoning to shreds.