Dec 13, 2025; New York, NY, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish running back Jeremiyah Love (left to right) and Indiana Hoosiers quarterback Fernando Mendoza and Vanderbilt Commodores quarterback Diego Pavia and Ohio State Buckeyes quarterback Julian Sayin pose with the Heisman trophy during a press conference at the New York Marriott Marquis. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images
By Ben Axelrod on

While it didn’t mirror the final results, Shehan Jeyarajah turned in a fairly conventional ballot for the 2025 Heisman Trophy.

But even if the CBS Sports national college football writer had gone more off the board, it wouldn’t have excused the vile and racist responses that his ballot received.

Taking to X on Sunday morning, Jeyarajah revealed how he had voted for the Heisman Trophy, giving Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia his first-place vote, followed by Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza and Texas Tech linebacker Jacob Rodriguez. As explained in an accompanying video, he voted for Pavia over Mendoza (who won the award) because he felt the Hoosiers’ signal-caller’s stats were “good, not great” and that Pavia’s impact at Vanderbilt has been one of college football’s defining stories of 2025.

“As a first-time voter, I view the Heisman very much as a story award,” Jeyarajah said. “And there were a lot of different types of cases in 2025… from my perspective, I was trying to find something that sort of split the difference between this idea of stats and impact and winning at the highest level.”

Whether you agree or not with how he voted or his line of thinking, Jeyarajah’s ballot hardly strayed from the norm. Pavia ultimately finished second behind Mendoza with the Commodores’ signal-caller receiving 189 first-place votes, while Rodriguez finished fifth.

Still, that didn’t stop the national college football writer from facing backlash. And some of those responses went far past the line of the typical “you should lose your ballot” comments, as Jeyarajah received multiple racist replies.

“Actually pretty wild that ‘voting for the second place Heisman finisher’ has folks crashing out like this,” he wrote in a post screenshotting four of the vile replies he received.

As many noted in the replies to his post, these type of responses are unfortunately all too common. Even if you disagree with Jeyarajah voting for Pavia or anyone else, there’s obviously no place for this type of reaction, whether it’s on social media or elsewhere.

About Ben Axelrod

Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.

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