After more than Half a Century, NFL MVP selection process sees a Paradigm Shift

The Most Valuable Player award or the MVP is arguably the most prestigious award in the NFL. It signifies athletic dominance and showcases a player’s competitive superiority.

For more than half a century, the Associated Press has been selecting who the NFL MVP will be. However, the traditional selection process might be shifting this year.

NFL changing with the times

The Associated Press has always been in charge of the selection process for the NFL MVP. How the actual selection is not made by the league itself. The Press has their own method of selecting who the MVP should be.

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They have been following a certain format for more than 50 years now. The process included 50 voters from the AP. The MVP was selected through a ballot wherein each voter was only allowed to name one player as their pick. This system didn’t allow some leeway to the voters in terms of having multiple contenders for the award. However, the new system aims to change this. The new system gives each voter an option to choose their top 5 picks for who they think the MVP should be.

The Associated Press also made a statement while announcing this new system. The AP Global Sports Editor, Ricardo Zuniga said, “Our goal is to provide the voters with an accurate and fair voting system to reflect their preferences. These tweaks will help them in their selection process.” He also mentioned that the goal of the selection process remains the same: Selecting the most dominant and competitive athlete in the league. The workings of a system with a top-5 player ranking system. It works a little differently as compared to the ballot system.

Proposed working of the new system

This new ranking system is aiming to give the voters more say. The proposed system is likely to be similar to the system employed in deciding the MVP in the NBA league. The ranking system only holds a small flaw. There exists a possibility that a player could get the most number of rankings but still not win the MVP. The best way to ensure this does not happen is to assign mathematically appropriate weightage to each position that the 50 voters pick for any of the players.

The NFL has had times in the past wherein players have won MVP awards without even garnering 25 votes. There have been times when the NFL has had co-MVPs as well. On such a competitive level, it becomes almost unjust towards athletes who work so hard to perform consistently. The question that now remains is how exactly will fans react to this new system and how well will it work for the NFL?

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