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" Thanks to the Heisman Trust, media folks and other voters had to wait until the day after the ceremony to reveal their ballots.Not that it added to any of the suspense Saturday night: Jameis Winston&amp;rsquo;s coronation as the Heisman winner has been clear for weeks. Baylor&amp;rsquo;s Bryce Petty and Oregon&amp;rsquo;s Marcus Mariota played themselves out of serious contention. The running back trio of Auburn&amp;rsquo;s Tre Mason, Boston College&amp;rsquo;s Andre Williams and Arizona&amp;rsquo;s Ka&amp;rsquo;Deem Carey played themselves onto ballots in the final weeks.All of that, and an investigation into a sexual battery allegation that yielded no charges, did not hinder Winston&amp;rsquo;s Heisman campaign. The Florida State quarterback turned in one of the most lopsided Heisman wins in the award's history. Winston had the seventh-largest margin of victory and ninth-most first-place votes, according to Chris Huston of HeismanPundit.com.While the Heisman ceremony gave us little drama, we did learn a bit beyond Winston&amp;rsquo;s win.Three Things We Learned from the 2013 Heisman VotingForget preseason Heisman lists. Midseason Heisman lists are meaningless, too. The 2014 Heisman watch has already begun, but the last four years should teach us not to give such lists much credence. Athlon isn&amp;rsquo;t exempt. Our preseason magazine will have a Heisman watch, of course. The Heisman watch is a fun discussion, and that&amp;rsquo;s about it. Of the last four Heisman winners, only Baylor&amp;rsquo;s Robert Griffin III even played the season before. Winston&amp;rsquo;s win gives us two redshirt freshmen and a junior college transfer to win the Heisman in the last four years. Preseason favorites AJ McCarron (second), Jordan Lynch (third), Johnny Manziel (fifth) and Braxton Miller (ninth) all made appearances, but the rest of the field was nowhere to be found on a list in August or September. Sixth-place finisher Tre Mason from Auburn hadn't even built enough clout to be a Doak Walker finalist before a 304-yard performance in the SEC championship game. That alone put him 277 points ahead of Bryce Petty, who was on everyone&amp;rsquo;s short list in October. Even Boston College&amp;rsquo;s Andre Williams used a monster November to finish ahead of defending winner Johnny Manziel. In future seasons, it wouldn't be inconceivable for a contender to appear on the scene and win the award in a span of two or three games in November.Regional biases are still a big deal. Jameis Winston won every region by a significant margin, but the voters were provincial in picking the second and third spots on their ballots. Only the Far West didn&amp;rsquo;t show a regional bias with Arizona&amp;rsquo;s Ka&amp;rsquo;Deem Carey finishing sixth. Elsewhere, the voters favored candidates in their backyard. Jordan Lynch was second in the Midwest. Johnny Manziel west second in the Southwest. Andre Williams was second in the Northeast. The Mid-Atlantic had AJ McCarron second, but ACC country also had Williams third. In the South, McCarron, Tre Mason and Johnny Manziel all lined up behind Winston.Playing in front of a captive audience matters. On the surface, the Heisman resumes for Northern Illinois&amp;rsquo; Jordan Lynch and Fresno State&amp;rsquo;s Derek Carr weren&amp;rsquo;t all that different. Both contenders had eye-popping statistics &amp;mdash; Lynch&amp;rsquo;s 1,881 rushing yards and 22 touchdowns, Carr&amp;rsquo;s 4,866 passing yards and 48 touchdowns. Both lost their chance at BCS games late in the season. And both came into the season with notable fanfare. So how did Lynch finish third and Carr finish eighth? Lynch&amp;rsquo;s last four games were all primetime ESPN2 broadcasts on a Tuesday, two Wednesdays and a Friday. Lynch&amp;rsquo;s previous five games were only televised locally. Meanwhile, Fresno State had four kickoffs after 10 p.m. Eastern, all on Saturdays, in the final six games. Carr led his team to a Mountain West title on a game featured on CBS ... in a game that ended well after midnight Eastern. Lynch&amp;rsquo;s exposure late in the season in wins over Ball State, Toledo and Western Michigan, vaulted the NIU quarterback to third in the voting. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://athlonsports.com/college-football/three-things-we-learned-2013-heisman-voting>