The USTFCCCA awards The Bowerman winner every year based on individual NCAA performances, and after the early June national championship, several candidates have a case for earning the ultimate college track and field honor. Here are the voters and an explanation of the voting process.

I don't have a Bowerman vote, but if I did, this is what my ballot would look like. As you can see in the video above, Adam and Gordon slightly disagree with my choices.

Men

Finalists

Jarrion Lawson, Arkansas
Edward Cheserek, Oregon
Clayton Murphy, Akron

Lawson is the clear winner. If you do something no one has done since Jesse Owens, you win the Bowerman. The uniqueness and difficulty of Lawson's long jump/100/200 triple outdoors slightly outweigh Ches's indoor triple and outdoor double for me, though this is the first time King C will be evaluated for the Bowerman with zero NCAA Championship losses.

Cheserek and Lawson will almost certainly be two of the three finalists. The third spot is up for grabs between Murphy, two-time 110m hurdle champion Devon Allen, and freshman sensation Donavan Brazier. I think Murphy's range will beat Allen and his two titles are worth more (from an awards perspective) than Brazier's singular brilliance.

Final Five

​Donavan Brazier, Texas A&M 
​Devon Allen, Oregon

The final five is never released publicly, but these five men are clearly the class of NCAA track and field.

Semifinalists

Lindon Victor, Texas A&M
Christian Coleman, Tennessee
Zach Ziemek, Wisconsin
Arman Hall, Florida
Filip Mihaljevic, Virginia

Apologies to Henry Wynne, Jake Blankenship, Sam Mattis, and Mason Ferlic, who just missed the cut. One-time champ Coleman over one-time champs Wynne and Blankenship was the toughest pick, but Coleman's two runner-up finishes outdoors get him into the 10. You could justify any combination of those nine men for the last five spots.

The Bowerman voters picked Ryan Crouser, Nick Miller, and Brandon McBride over Coleman, Mihaljevic, and Blankenship. The selection of Crouser, who didn't even have outdoor eligibility, is...curious.

Women

Finalists

Courtney Okolo, Texas
Shamier Little, Texas A&M
Keturah Orji, Georgia

How do you pick a winner between Okolo and Orji? Both collected indoor and outdoor titles in their events and broke collegiate records in the process. But Okolo's two championships in the indoor and outdoor 4x400 put her over the top. Here's how arbitrary awards voting is: I'm really picking Okolo because she's the first woman to break 50 seconds in college, which just feels special. She's getting an undeserved benefit from a round number. Orji is the first woman to triple jump over 47 feet.

Final Five

​Kendell Williams, Georgia
​Raevyn Rogers, Oregon

Unlike the men, where five athletes are a cut above the rest, there are at least 10 women good enough to crack the final five. I ultimately went with Williams and Rogers because I saw them as potentially deserving finalists, which I didn't feel was the case for Washington, Saunders, Scott, and Frerichs because none of them won indoor titles. Weeks has a résumé every bit as strong as Rogers', but only five women make that cut.

Semifinalists

​Ariana Washington, Oregon
​Raven Saunders, Mississippi
Dominique Scott, Arkansas
Courtney Frerichs, New Mexico
Lexi Weeks, Arkansas

​Major apologies to collegiate record-breaker Maggie Malone (javelin) and NCAA meet record-breaker DeAnna Price (hammer) who may end up on the real list anyway. Marta Freitas and Jasmine Camacho-Quinn also fall just short for me.​

The actual semifinalists, announced last week, include DeAnna Price and Maggie Malone over Raevyn Rogers and Lexi Weeks.