2012
FWAA
All-America Team

FWAA Names 2012 All-America Team

SEC lands 11 players on 26-man team

Courtesy FWAA
December 14, 2012

DALLAS (FWAA) – The powerful Southeastern Conference, which has claimed the last six national football championships and has a chance for a seventh next month, has placed 11 of the 26 players on the 69th Football Writers Association of America All-America Team.

Among the star-studded lineup of players on the team was Bronko Nagurski Trophy winner Manti Te’o of Notre Dame, Outland Trophy winner Luke Joeckel of Texas A&M and Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel of Texas A&M.

The FWAA All-America Team is the second-longest continuously-published team in major college football. Since 1944, the FWAA has named an All-America team

CollegeFootballPoll.com's Dave Congrove is a member of the Football Writers Association of America and a nominating member for the 25-player FWAA All-America Team.

Besides the SEC, the other conferences to place multiple players on the team were the Big 12 (three), Pac-12 (three), Atlantic Coast (two) and Mid-American (two). Nine of the 11 NCAA Bowl Subdivision conferences, however, were represented on the team. It is the first time the MAC has had more than a single player on the team.

Texas A&M and Alabama, two of the SEC's powerhouse teams, placed four and three players on the FWAA team, respectively. Alabama had center Barrett Jones, offensive tackle Chance Warmack and defensive back Dee Milliner. Texas A&M placed offensive tackles Joeckel and Jake Matthews, Manziel, and defensive end Damontre Moore on the squad. SEC teams LSU, Mississippi State, South Carolina and Georgia also had one player each on the team.

Manziel, who is the first freshman quarterback in the 69-year history of the FWAA team, is the only freshman (redshirt) on the 2012 team. And there were only two sophomores, defensive end Jadeveon Clowney of South Carolina and wide receiver Marqise Lee of USC. Jones of Alabama and linebacker Jarvis Jones of Georgia were the only two repeaters from 2011.

The FWAA All-America Committee selected three wide receivers on the team because of the depth of talent at the position and dropped the tight end. Another oddity was the team included two Outland Trophy winners. Jones was the 2011 Outland winner as a junior when he played tackle.

First selected three years after the organization was formed, the FWAA's inaugural team included Army's Heisman Trophy tandem of Doc Blanchard and Glenn Davis and Georgia Tech's Frank Broyles, who later became Arkansas' head football coach and athletic director.

Over the years, the FWAA Team has highlighted all the game's great players in several media forums.

From 1946-70, LOOK Magazine published the FWAA team and brought players and selected writers to New York City for a celebration. During that 25-year period, the FWAA team was introduced on national television shows by Bob Hope, Steve Allen, Perry Como and others.

After LOOK folded, the FWAA started a long association with NCAA Films (later known as NCAA Productions), which produced a 30-minute television show and sold it to sponsors. The team was part of ABC Television's 1981 College Football Series.

From 1983-90, the team was either on ABC or ESPN, and now has returned to the national spotlight on ABC.

The FWAA team has included most of the Heisman Trophy and Maxwell Award winners over the years and Outland Trophy winners. Those are the three oldest awards in major-college football.

For 68 years, the FWAA has selected an All-America team with the help of its members and an All-America Committee which represents all the regions in the country. The FWAA also selects the Outland Trophy winner (best interior lineman) and also the Bronko Nagurski Trophy winner (best defensive player).

Some of the true greats of the writing profession have helped to select this team over the years: Mark Blaudschun, Grantland Rice, Bert McGrane, Blackie Sherrod, Furman Bisher, Pat Harmon, Fred Russell, Edwin Pope, Murray Olderman, Paul Zimmerman and the list goes on and on. It is a team steeped in tradition and history and selected by a writers' group with the same attributes.

The Football Writers Association of America, a non-profit organization founded in 1941, consists of more than 1,200 men and women across North America who cover college football for a living. The membership includes journalists, broadcasters and publicists, as well as key executives in all the areas that involve the game. The FWAA works to govern areas that include gameday operations, major awards, a national poll and its annual All-America team.