Heisman Trophy 2026 Ceremony Is Saturday, Dec. 12: Voting Deadline, Finalists Date and Time Zones

The 2026 Heisman Trophy winner is announced at the Heisman ceremony on Saturday, Dec. 12, 2026, according to the key dates on heisman.com, the website of the Heisman Trophy Trust. Ballots are due Monday, Dec. 7, by 5 p.m. Eastern Time (ET), and the finalists are announced that evening. A free printable timeline with all four dates is below.

What are the 2026 Heisman Trophy dates?

The Heisman Trophy Trust lists four dates for the 2026 award. We checked the weekdays against the 2026 calendar.

Date	What happens	Source
Thursday, Dec. 3, 2026	Heisman ballots distributed	heisman.com key dates
Monday, Dec. 7, 2026	Voting deadline: ballots due by 5 p.m. ET	heisman.com key dates and balloting page
Monday, Dec. 7, 2026	Finalists announced, in the evening	heisman.com key dates and balloting page
Saturday, Dec. 12, 2026	Winner announced at the Heisman ceremony	heisman.com key dates

Voters have four days between the day ballots go out and the deadline, a count from the dates above. Put the dates on your own sheet with the December 2026 printable calendar, or use the Heisman printable on this page.

Download the Heisman Trophy 2026 timeline (PDF)

What time is the Heisman voting deadline in each time zone?

The Heisman balloting page says ballots are due by 5 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 7. The page writes the zone as “EST”; we treat it as Eastern Time. By our conversion:

Zone	Deadline on Mon., Dec. 7
Eastern	5 p.m.
Central	4 p.m.
Mountain	3 p.m.
Pacific	2 p.m.
Alaska	1 p.m.
Hawaii	noon

When will the Heisman finalists be announced?

The balloting page says the 2026 finalists are announced in the evening of Monday, Dec. 7. The exact time is not yet announced. In a December 2025 press release, ESPN said it continues to exclusively announce the finalists each year under a multi-year agreement with the Heisman Trophy Trust.

What time and channel is the 2026 ceremony?

Not yet announced. The Heisman Trophy Trust has confirmed the date, and an October 20, 2026, release about hospitality packages refers to “the televised Heisman Trophy Ceremony presented by Nissan.” The start time, the network and the venue are not in the sources we read.

The ESPN release of Dec. 19, 2025, says ESPN remains the ceremony’s home. Whether the show airs on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) or ESPN this year is not stated.

How did the 2025 ceremony compare?

In 2025, ESPN said the ceremony was Saturday, Dec. 13, at 7 p.m. ET on ABC, from the Appel Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York. Treat those details as last year’s, not as 2026 plans.

	2025	2026
Ceremony date	Saturday, Dec. 13	Saturday, Dec. 12
Start time	7 p.m. ET	Not yet announced
Network	ABC	Not yet announced
Venue	Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Appel Room, New York	Not yet announced

The 2025 finalists were Jeremiyah Love (Notre Dame), Fernando Mendoza (Indiana), Diego Pavia (Vanderbilt) and Julian Sayin (Ohio State). Mendoza, Indiana’s quarterback, won with 2,362 points, according to heisman.com.

Who votes for the Heisman Trophy?

The Heisman balloting page lists 145 media votes per section, 870 media votes in all. Every living Heisman winner also votes. We did not find a total voter count in the sources we read, so we do not give one.

What should you check before Dec. 12?

The finalists list, the broadcast start time and the network are the open items. The Heisman Trophy Trust and ESPN are the sources to watch, and we will update this story when they publish. For other college football dates in December, see our stories on the College Football Playoff schedule and the Army-Navy Game. A printable weekly calendar helps if you plan a watch party around the broadcast.