Blame L. Budd Thalman. He's the one who got this hype thing rolling when, back in 1963 as Navy's sports information director, he sent out the first batch of propoganda -- or more precisely 1,000 preseason pamphlets -- on the merits of Midshipmen quarterback Roger Staubach winning the Heisman Trophy.

	Joey Harrington's image on a New York City building created a buzz about the Oregon quarterback, but it wasn't enough to win him the Heisman Trophy.

It worked. Staubach won the award as a junior, and the snowball was set on its downhill journey in what became an avalanche of flashy posters, mass-produced CD-ROMs and a variety of trinkets that annually litter the desks of college football writers and television sports anchors across the country. The hope is that the timely reminder of a player's on-the-field exploits here or blatant promotion of the school's star there might sway how Heisman voters vote on the most prestigious college football award.

It quickly escalated. Just three years later, in an attempt to win Steve Spurrier the Heisman, the University of Florida spliced together a highlights reel of its do-everything quarterback, including clips of him running, passing and even kicking, and sent it to media across the country. As Spurrier went on to live up to the preseason billing, Florida Gov. Hayden Burns authorized the state's department of tourism to fund another in-season version as a timely reminder of the Gator QB's Heisman worthiness.

By 2001, the University of Oregon had raised the ante of the Heisman hype, spending $250,000 to plaster the likeness of Joey Harrington on the side of a New York City building in a not-too-subtle push to improve the Duck QB's profile in the very city that the Heisman calls home. Perhaps because Harrington finished fourth in voting last year, Oregon has found a more visible location for this year's billboard touting its games on the YES Network, with an Elvis-sized photo of Ducks receiver Keenan Howry overlooking Times Square.

But the secret of getting ahead in the Heisman race seems to have simplified for some this year. In the age of an ever-scrutinizing media and a keep-it-real sensibility among the masses, word of mouth seems to go further than even the best propaganda a school can fund. Anything that smacks of politicking or electioneering could be counterproductive to the intended goal.

Indeed, less is hoped to be more for this year's Heisman candidates, including four high-profile quarterbacks -- Florida's Rex Grossman, Miami's Ken Dorsey, Mississippi's Eli Manning and Tennessee's Casey Clausen -- whose schools plan to stay out of the fray entirely this year.

	“	"Maybe it's OK for the running back at Middle Tennessee State (Dwone Hicks), but not for guys at major programs. Especially when there are gimmicks involved, all people do is make fun of those campaigns. I didn't want Eli or Ole Miss to be a part of that. ”
		— Archie Manning, who put a halt to Ole Miss' campaign to tout Eli Manning for the Heisman

"It gets a little fake when you have billboards and a campaign," Grossman said. "It gets away from football. And you want to win because of what you've done on the field -- not some mass mailing."

Grossman, who finished second in Heisman voting last year, can say that because he's visible at a high-profile school like Florida, where reporters from the Washington Post to the Orange County Register in Southern California consistently come to see games because of the national interest surrounding the program.

This season, the free-spending and free-wheeling hype machine churns, for the most part, at sports information offices of smaller budget schools like Louisiana Tech and Marshall, where school officials aren't afraid to spend to promote their Heisman candidates.

Marshall started promoting quarterback Byron Leftwich during his junior season last year, when it mailed a CD-Rom and fliers to the media acquainting them with the Thundering Herd's signal-caller. Although the school doesn't reap the revenues like BCS member conference schools do, Marshall is accustomed to spending on Heisman campaigns.

The school spent $7,000 promoting wide receiver Randy Moss in 1997, when he finished fourth in the voting. Two years later, they spent $8,000 on quarterback Chad Pennington, who finished fifth in the voting. This year, the school has budgeted $10,000 to promote Leftwich, sports information director Ricky Hazel said.

"We're not trying to help get Byron to New York, we are trying to help him win the Heisman," Hazel said.

Aside from sending out postcards each week, which will cost about $4,000 to print alone, the school will make 5,000 Leftwich bobbleheads, with 1,000 going to media members, as well as life-sized posters of Leftwich.

"I'm not going to try to win the Heisman on every throw," Leftwich said. "But I'm glad that Marshall is willing to spend on my campaign and part of me doesn't want to let them down."

Recent history won't comfort Leftwich or Hazel. Not only have the past 11 Heisman winners come from the Atlantic Coast, Big 10, Big 12, Big East and SEC conferences, but the combined expenditures by schools of Heisman winners over the past three years is less than $5,000.

Ragone's Mini-Me

How much the University of Louisville spends this year on its Heisman campaign for quarterback Dave Ragone is dependent on how well he performs throughout the season. So far, the school's plan is to distribute bobblehead dolls of Ragone, 700 of which will go out to media and Heisman voters at the end of the month. The remainder will be sold at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium. "We're doing the bobbleheads because we feel it' going to leave a lasting impression with the voters," Louisville SID Kenny Klein said. "It's pretty tough for people to trash a bobblehead." Although the Conference USA school will play six games that will be televised on either ESPN or ESPN2, Klein says his department might send media members postcards if they feel Ragone is in the Heisman race. A good game against Florida State on Sept. 26 might just cause Klein to go to the post office. "We will have access to funds," Klein said, "but if we don't have to use them, we won't." -- Darren Rovell, ESPN.com

"If a player is doing things on the field that is helping establish himself as a Heisman candidate, there's nothing anyone can do to stop the media from taking interest, interviewing and writing about him," said Archie Manning, who told Ole Miss sports information director Langston Rogers to stop promoting his son, Eli, for the Heisman. At the time, Eli Manning was advertised on the cover of the football team's spring prospectus as a "Heisman Trophy candidate."

"Maybe it's OK for the running back at Middle Tennessee State (Dwone Hicks), but not for guys at major programs," said Manning, whose son, Peyton, finished eighth in the Heisman voting in 1996 and second in 1997. "Especially when there are gimmicks involved, all people do is make fun of those campaigns. I didn't want Eli or Ole Miss to be a part of that."

But a gimmick already has worked for Washington State University this year. The school spent $2,500 on a pair of 15-foot-by-25-foot banners of quarterback Jason Gesser. In early July, the school paid $350 to attach one banner to a grain elevator in Dusty, Wash., parodying the 80-foot-by-100-foot billboard of Harrington that was erected in New York's Times Square last year. The second banner will debut Aug. 31 in Seattle, where the school will open its season against the University of Nevada.

"We got great exposure from the first one," said Rod Commons, the Cougars' media relations director who got creative by sending Heisman voters a single leaf in an envelope in 1997 to remind them to vote for Washington State quarterback Ryan Leaf. "Every major news organization picked it up."

The school, however, is not planning to spend much more on Gesser, with the exception of sending out a letter-sized poster to alert voters if Gesser breaks school passing records of other Cougars greats like Jack Thompson, Mark Rypien, Drew Bledsoe and Leaf. Voters will get e-mails from the school and can view updates on his Web site.

University of Florida and Miami officials say they still can be aggressive without spending money.

"We make sure that Ken (Dorsey) is doing interviews for newspapers and does other media appearances in parts of the country that don't usually get to hear a lot from him," said Mark Pray, the Miami's assistant athletic director for communications. "If we don't hear from the San Francisco media in a while, we'll call San Francisco and ask writers there if they want to talk to him."

	Heisman hype sites
	Luke McCown, QB, Louisiana Tech Dave Ragone, QB, Louisville Kliff Kingsbury, QB, Texas Tech Dwone Hicks, RB, Middle Tennessee State Byron Leftwich, QB, Marshall Jason Gesser, QB, Washington State

If Malcolm Butler, Louisiana Tech's sports information director, called college beat writers in California to ask if they would like to talk to their longshot Heisman candidate, junior quarterback Luke McCown, odds are they would ask him how his brother Cade is doing.

"Everyone asks me that," McCown said of Cade McNown, a backup quarterback with the San Francisco 49ers who placed third in the 1998 Heisman when he played at UCLA. "We don't even have the same last name."

Butler said he could spend as much as $5,000 sending postcards with updated statistics to writers this season, which Butler says is really only the first of a two-year campaign.

"We know he has a much better chance winning it as a senior than he does as a junior, so we've got to start now," said Butler, noting that the school only has one guaranteed national TV game this year (on ESPN 2 against Fresno State on Dec. 5). "Florida and Miami have instant credibility. If they have a mediocre running back, everyone puts him on their Heisman list. But if you're at a mid-major and you have a superstar quarterback, it takes a long time for you to convince them that he's for real."

Darren Rovell, who covers sports business for ESPN.com, can be reached at darren.rovell@espnpub.com