Saturday, five of the (allegedly) best college football players in the country will assemble in Manhattan at the Downtown Athletic Club to learn which of them will be the 2009 Heisman Trophy winner.

Regrettably, Clemson’s C.J. Spiller won’t be among them.

I don’t know how one can legitimately argue that Spiller isn’t in the top five. When you look at the year he’s had — especially stacked up against the resumes of the five who did get to go to New York — it should be a no-brainer.

Unfortunately, the Heisman committee hasn’t exactly been renowned for geniusness lately. Gino Torretta, anyone?

(Full disclosure: Torretta’s 1992 Heisman particularly sticks in my craw, because I’m a San Diego State alum, and Torretta — an overrated, marginal quarterback at best who benefitted from the season-long yapping of ESPN blowhard Lee Corso — leapfrogged my classmate Marshall Faulk to win the award).

This year, the Heisman committee has chosen to invite the following players to New York:

n Colt McCoy, Texas QB. A nice choice overall, but McCoy didn’t exactly make a very strong case for himself with last weekend’s three picks and boneheaded clock management in the Big 12 Championship game. McCoy could easily have cost his team the game, undefeated record and BCS title game berth. Luckily, the Longhorns’ kicker — you know, one of those guys who aren’t really football players — bailed him out.

n Tim Tebow, Florida QB. Yawn. Been there, done that. Tebow was completely shut down by the Alabama defense last week. Tebow’s a nice kid, but he’s had his moment in the Heisman sun and didn’t do much to distinguish himself this year.

Soon he can graduate and move on to his destiny, joining the aforementioned Torretta and Danny Wuerffel in the ranks of overrated quarterbacks from the state of Florida who went nowhere in the NFL.

nToby Gerhart, Stanford running back. Gerhart gets my meaningless vote from this less-than-impressive list. He’s got the best numbers (1,726 yards and 26 TDs).

n Mark Ingram, Alabama running back. Ingram would be a good choice, too, as he gave his campaign a late push with last week’s performance against Florida.

nNdamukong Suh, Nebraska defensive lineman. Suh’s a good player with a bright future in the NFL, but defensive players have an especially high bar to clear in winning the Heisman.

Spiller should definitely be making travel plans to the Big Apple. All he’s done all year is step up when his team needed him most.

He very nearly led the Tigers to the ACC title last weekend, with 233 rushing yards, 301 all-purpose yards and four TDs.

Spiller is a good kid, one who gets it: Instead of sitting for interviews after the Heisman finalists were announced, he released a statement and asked not to be disturbed so he could study for finals.

He thanked everyone who supported him and looked to the future, which includes helping the Tigers win the Music City Bowl.

The Heisman committee, once again, has fumbled.

Contact sports editor David Vantress at 997-3111, ext. 14, or via email at dvantress@yourdailyjournal.com.