Johnny Manziel had electability on his side

• Johnny Manziel had the performances and the position to be the choice for the Heisman

Manti Te'o had the story. He had the school. He had the character references. Besides that, given the way college stars rush off early for the siren call of NFL and NBA money, there is a nostalgic charm in exalting a senior.

So why isn't he flying back to Notre Dame with the Heisman trophy?

Because there is one Heisman commandment he could not follow.

Thou shalt gain yards and produce points – somehow, some way.

They handed the trophy to a redshirt freshman Saturday night, another historical wall broken down. Johnny Manziel at the podium was a reminder the balloting is open to everyone.

Te'o still in his seat was a reminder that winning it is not.

There have now been 78 Heismans awarded and 73 of them have gone to either a running back or a quarterback. Only one – Michigan's Charles Woodson in 1997 – was primarily a defensive player, but he created a lot of his buzz with punt returns and shifted over to offense to catch a few passes.

Nobody who's played defense and defense alone has won the Heisman. Not in 78 years. Probably never will. That is the reality Manti Te'o faced Saturday night.

Is it logical? Probably. The quarterback is, without question, the most important position on the field. None of his mistakes go unnoticed. If you were forced to have only a great quarterback or a great linebacker on your team, which would you choose?

Is it fair? Not always. But the Heisman balloting has never been designed to choose the absolute best player in college football, no matter what its rules state. You could be the finest left guard who ever lived, and you wouldn't get a vote.

(Full disclosure: Highly tempted to put Te'o first, I went with Manziel instead, mostly because he outscored Alabama in Tuscaloosa and went 10-2 with big production while facing SEC defenses. So I, too, was lured by numbers).

There is a list of Heisman no-nos, and all were on display in this election campaign.

You can't come from the off-Broadway schools. Hence, no Jordan Lynch of Northern Illinois in New York.

You can't lose too many games. That took care of West Virginia's Geno Smith. He completed 71.4 percent passes for 4,004 yards, 40 touchdowns and only six interceptions, and utterly vanished from contention. Last year, Baylor's Robert Griffin III completed 72.4 percent of his passes for 4,293 yards, 37 touchdowns and six interceptions, and comfortably won. But Baylor went 10-3, West Virginia 7-5

You can't lose at the wrong time. Everyone loved Kansas State's Collin Klein, right up to the moment he threw three interceptions in a thumping at Baylor. Manziel had shaky games, too, but Klein's came late in the season, when everyone was looking.

And you can't just play defense. There is no way to weekly make the highlight clips that make the voters swoon. There is no way to consistently put up numbers. Defenders finish high in the balloting, but not at the top.

So Te'o joins the long list of Heisman No. 2's who never got to No. 1, which in itself is a distinguished club.

Look at all the Super Bowl winning quarterbacks. Peyton Manning, John Elway, Steve Young, Joe Theismann and Bob Griese are there.

So are Adrian Peterson and Marshall Faulk. Andrew Luck finished second. Twice.

The runner-up spot has produced a Congressman in Tennessee's Heath Shuler, and a justice of the Supreme Court in Colorado's Byron White. A television actor in Cornell's Ed Marinaro. A future championship coach in Johnny Majors, who finished second at Tennessee in 1956 and 20 years later won the national title at Pittsburgh.

Te'o is the newest member of the Almost Club. If it's any consolation, someone can tell him about the guy who played center and tackle at Penn, which meets two of the disqualifying criteria. Wrong position, wrong school.

John Heisman would never have won the Heisman, either.