The Associated Press announced on Friday that they have updated their voting system for yearly NFL awards. That includes how voting for the league MVP will be conducted.
Since 1957, the AP allowed its panel of 50 national journalists to submit a single name for the NFL MVP Award. The player with the most votes was given the trophy. However, that will drastically change when voting takes place this season.
As part of the changes, the AP will now allow voters to submit their ballots ranking their top five choices for MVP. The votes will then be averaged out and the MVP will be determined by that average as opposed to the overall number of votes. It will also allow the AP to more easily determine the second- and third-place finishers.
“The essence of the AP NFL Awards remains the same — to recognize the top performers of the season,” 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.”
The top-5 process will apply to league MVP voting only. All other awards will be subject to a top-3 ballot.
In addition to NFL MVP, the AP will hand out seven other awards at the end of this season. The NFL Honors show is scheduled for February 9, 2023.
