The Courier & Press Midseason Football Player of the Year: How Voting Works & How to Win

What the Courier & Press midseason football poll is and who runs it

Courier & Press, the newspaper brand behind the Midseason Football Player of the Year, puts one question to its Indiana readership at the midpoint of the high school football season: which player has earned the midseason honor? The ballot is a single-question fan vote in the sport vertical, and it runs on Crowdsignal, the platform readers reach through the poll.fm links the publisher prints in its sports coverage. The voting URL for the program is https://poll.fm/14409293, which is the ballot page itself rather than a general landing page.

Nominees on each edition's ballot are players drawn from Indiana high school football programs, and because the program is a reader poll rather than a juried award, the outcome is decided entirely by the public count. No entry fee, nomination form or judging panel sits between a nominee and the result. The program's fixed details are gathered in the table underneath this paragraph; anything the publisher leaves off the ballot is addressed in the section on dates rather than guessed at here.

The dated footprint of the Courier & Press midseason vote

The program's dated footprint is short and specific. Confirmed editions of the Courier & Press midseason vote ran in 2022, 2023 and 2024, and every one of those cycles placed its voting window in September, matching the midpoint of the Indiana high school football season. The 2024 ballot at poll.fm/14409293 now displays a closed status in its title, and it closed decisively: the leading nominee finished at 57 percent of 63,017 votes, a total that shows how heavily the publisher's readers participate once the poll circulates through its sports coverage.

No printed calendar accompanies the ballot. Courier & Press leaves the September window's opening day and closing day off the poll page; confirm on the live ballot each cycle. No 2026 edition has been announced either, so recurrence rests on the confirmed 2022 to 2024 run rather than on any forward schedule. For a supporter planning around the next cycle, mid-September is the period to watch in the publisher's sports desk output, and the poll link will surface there before anywhere else.

How a supporter votes in the Courier & Press midseason poll

Casting a vote in the Courier & Press Midseason Football Player of the Year takes one visit. A supporter opens the ballot at https://poll.fm/14409293, reads the question at the top, and reviews the nominee list, each line pairing a player with the Indiana high school football program he represents. Selecting a nominee and submitting adds the choice to the Crowdsignal running total immediately. The poll requests no registration and no payment at any point; Courier & Press offers it free to readers, as it does its other fan votes.

Just as relevant for anyone planning a push is what the ballot withholds. It carries no wording on repeat voting, no statement on whether visits from one device are counted or collapsed, and no eligibility text for nominees. Where those rules exist, they live in the publisher's coverage rather than on the ballot, so a supporter wanting certainty should read the accompanying article when the next edition opens. Because the 2024 ballot is closed, the description above reflects the confirmed ballots to date; the next live ballot may adjust the wording, and the publisher's sports desk is where any change would surface first.

Where the midseason ballot sits among Indiana's player votes

The Courier & Press midseason ballot does not sit alone in Indiana's high school sports voting scene. The same publisher fielded the Evansville Courier & Press Football Player of the Year, a season-long counterpart that closes the year rather than marking its midpoint, and the two programs share the Courier & Press masthead while answering different questions about the same sport. Elsewhere in the state, the Indiana High School Football Player of the Week runs on a weekly rhythm during the season, the Indiana SI football honors split by Class 3A and Class 4A, and the Indiana SI boys basketball edition carries the publisher-poll format into winter sports. The Bloomington Herald-Times Athlete of the Week shows the same model working in a different Indiana market.

What separates the midseason vote from all of these is timing and scope. It arrives at the halfway point of the football season, before playoff runs reshape the picture, and it opens the question to every position and every class rather than narrowing to one classification. Readers who follow more than one of these ballots can compare how each publisher frames its question on the program pages linked throughout this site.

Strengthening support for a nominee in this September poll

Support for a nominee in this poll comes down to reach, because the ballot counts every vote the public casts and publishes no limit on repeat participation. A player's strongest asset is the community around the program: student sections, family groups and local boosters who will follow a poll.fm link the moment the Courier & Press sports desk posts it. The practical playbook is straightforward. Share the ballot link the day the edition opens, since September windows are short; name the nominee and the school in every post so supporters know exactly which line to select; and remind people through the channels they already use, from team group chats to booster pages. Tactics that carry across fan votes are collected in our guide on how to get more votes online. Before spending on paid support, read whether buying votes is legal, because whatever rules Courier & Press sets for its poll outrank any outside help.