Fans get to help decide who will be the next C Spire Conerly Trophy winner honoring Mississippi's top college football player of the year

JACKSON, Miss., Nov. 25, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- With an exciting college football season winding down and the annual Egg Bowl rivalry between Ole Miss and Mississippi State just around the corner, interest is growing in the 2019 C Spire Conerly Trophy as fans wait anxiously to see who will win the coveted award, which annually honors the top college football player in Mississippi.

While the teams will determine their fate on the gridiron, college football fans will help influence who gets the best player honors.  For only the seventh time in the award's 24-year history, fan voting will count for 10 percent of the Conerly Trophy and a panel of statewide sports media will decide the remaining 90 percent.

"We want fans to help select Mississippi's best college football player," said Bill Blackwell, executive director of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum and co-sponsor of the award along with C Spire. "Other sports have used fan voting for years. We think involving fans will help sustain interest in an award that's become an integral part of the college football scene."

The 10 Conerly Trophy finalists are Ole Miss quarterback John Rhys Plumlee, Mississippi State running back Kylin Hill, Southern Miss quarterback Jack Abraham, Mississippi Valley State defensive back Tracy Thompkins, Mississippi College quarterback Detric Hawthorn, Alcorn State quarterback Felix Harper, Millsaps College defensive end Liam Vincifora, Belhaven University quarterback Hunter McEachern, Jackson State linebacker Keonte Hampton and Delta State defensive back Junior Faulk.

Fan voting begins today at 5 p.m. CT and concludes on Sunday, Dec. 1 at noon CT.  Fans may submit up to three votes per day during the voting period; however, only one entry is allowed per day for each of the social media methods.  To register and vote, go to http://cspireconerlyvoting.hscampaigns.com/.

Past winners of the C Spire Conerly Trophy have included such former and current prominent NFL standouts as Evan Engram, Dak Prescott, Deuce McAllister, Eli Manning, Jerious Norwood, Michael Boley, Patrick Willis, Anthony Dixon and last year's winner, Jeffrey Simmons.  Prescott and Manning are the only two-time winners of the award.  

"Football fans across Mississippi are very passionate about their schools and the star players in their respective programs.  We are excited to give fans the ability once again to help influence who wins the C Spire Conerly Trophy," said Jim Richmond, vice president of Marketing for C Spire.

The C Spire Conerly Trophy presentation is scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 3 at the Country Club of Jackson, 345 Saint Andrews Driver, in Jackson. A 5:30 p.m. reception will be followed by the 6:30 p.m. dinner program and trophy presentation.  Coaches and finalists from all the schools are expected to attend.  For ticket availability or more information, go to msfame.com or call 601.982.8264.  Former Southern Miss football legend Reggie Collier will be the special guest speaker at the awards program.

Now in its 24^th year, the Conerly Trophy presented by C Spire is named after the late Charlie Conerly – the only football inductee in the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame who was an All-American at a Mississippi university, an NFL rookie of the year and NFL All-Pro member and quarterbacked a team to a world championship.  C Spire has sponsored the outstanding player awards program for all major college sports in Mississippi since 1998.

About C Spire
C Spire is a Mississippi-based diversified telecommunications and technology services company that provides world-class, customer-inspired wireless communications, 1 Gigabit consumer Internet access as well as a full suite of dedicated Internet, wireless, IP Voice, data and cloud services for businesses.  This news release and other announcements are available at www.cspire.com/news. For more information about C Spire, visit www.cspire.com or follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/cspire or Twitter at www.twitter.com/cspire.

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SOURCE C Spire