Michigan High School Player of the Year: How Voting Works & How to Win

What is the High School on SI Michigan High School Player of the Year?

The Michigan High School Player of the Year is a set of eight annual fan-vote polls published each December by High School on SI, the prep sports vertical of Sports Illustrated (owned by Authentic Brands Group). After MHSAA football championships conclude in late November, SI's Michigan prep staff identifies standout nominees for each of Michigan's eight football divisions — D1 through D8 — and opens a public vote on si.com/high-school/michigan so fans statewide can weigh in on the top performer in their classification.

• Eight separate polls, one per MHSAA football division (D1 largest enrolment → D8 smallest).
• Nominees are selected editorially by SI's Michigan prep desk; polls are free to vote in with no sign-up.
• The D1 and D2 polls attract the largest vote totals, reflecting Michigan's deepest talent pools in Detroit metro and West Michigan.
• This award is distinct from Michigan Mr. Football — the State Champs!/Hungry Howie's composite-score honour where fan vote counts for 20%. The SI POY is a pure fan-vote recognition, division-specific, with no editorial scoring component in the final result.
• Both 2024 and 2025 seasons confirmed all eight divisional polls at si.com/high-school/michigan, typically opening in early-to-mid December.

Which Michigan schools and divisions appear in the SI Player of the Year polls?

Michigan's eight MHSAA football divisions are determined by school enrolment, stratifying the state's 754 member schools from the largest suburban and urban programmes down to small rural and Upper Peninsula schools. The SI Player of the Year poll system mirrors this MHSAA structure exactly — one poll per division, nominated players drawn from state-finalist and all-state-calibre performers in each tier.

Michigan MHSAA football divisions and representative schools

D1 and D2 polls typically see the most competitive vote totals because the Detroit metro (Wayne, Oakland, Macomb counties) and West Michigan (Kent, Ottawa, Muskegon counties) produce large alumni networks and organised booster communities. The Upper Peninsula divisions — D7 and D8 — generate intense local loyalty in smaller communities where regional pride concentrates votes quickly.

How does the SI Michigan Player of the Year fan vote work?

Each divisional poll lives inside a dedicated article page at si.com/high-school/michigan — published by the SI prep staff in early-to-mid December. The article frames the nominees with brief performance summaries, and an embedded poll widget lets any visitor vote at no cost. For a full overview of how online prep sports polls like this function, visit our online contest voting guide.

The SI poll platform accepts one submission per device per session in standard operation — there is no stated per-hour cap like some newspaper-format polls. Votes are tallied live and visible to all visitors throughout the window. The window for each division runs approximately five to seven days; in December 2024, the D1 poll closed Saturday December 29 at 11:59 p.m., with the winner announced the following Monday. The D3 and D4 polls in the same cycle closed December 31.

Voting works on all standard desktop and mobile browsers with no account, login, or email address required. Family, friends, classmates, and community members outside Michigan can also vote — distance is no barrier for supporters who have the direct poll link.

Recent Michigan High School Player of the Year nominees and winners by division

The table below draws on publicly confirmed 2024-season nominees from si.com/high-school/michigan and verified adjacent honours (Gatorade, MaxPreps, AP All-State) to illustrate the calibre of players who typically appear on the SI ballot. Where a definitive SI poll winner is confirmed, it is noted; where only nominees are confirmed, the field is listed. Note: SI poll winners are announced on the si.com article page after voting closes — check the current season's article for the most recent result.

How the SI POY differs from other Michigan prep football honours

How do you get more votes for the SI Michigan Player of the Year poll?

The fundamental math is the same as any fan-vote poll: more devices, more networks reached, and more hours of the window covered produces a larger total. The SI platform's session-based structure (rather than hourly cap) means a strong early push matters — a nominee who builds a visible lead in the first 24 to 48 hours benefits from the psychological momentum visible in live totals. For general vote-campaign tactics applicable to any online poll, see our how-to guides; the Michigan-specific notes below address what actually works in this market.

The Detroit metro D1 and D2 polls are won by scale — Cass Tech's alumni span generations of Detroit residents, and Belleville's Wayne County community is one of the state's largest. In contrast, the D7 and D8 Upper Peninsula polls can be highly competitive with far smaller absolute totals: Iron Mountain's Dickinson County community or Powers North Central's Menominee County base may only produce a few hundred votes, but those votes represent near-total community mobilisation. Calibrate your strategy to the division you are working in.

What are the rules — and can you buy votes for the SI Michigan Player of the Year?

The SI Michigan Player of the Year polls are reader-engagement fan polls with no cash prize, no formal sweepstakes legal structure, and no MHSAA administrative involvement. The relevant restrictions are those of the poll platform embedded in si.com articles. For a broader treatment of legality around online poll voting services, read our full guide; the points below are specific to this format.

The meaningful distinction in this context:

• Bot scripts / automated rapid injection — requests that exceed normal human-paced submission rates or originate from data-centre IP ranges. These are detectable and result in vote removal from the tally.
• Paid outreach to genuine human voters — real supporters casting votes from their own devices at a normal pace. Structurally identical to a booster club email reaching additional families — real fans voting through a different channel.

Whether the second category satisfies the spirit of SI's contest terms is a judgement each family or programme must make after reading the current article's rules. This is a fan-recognition poll with no prize and no formal legal framework — the stakes are reputational, not legal. Weigh that honestly against the value of a published SI recognition credential for the athlete.

When does the SI Michigan Player of the Year voting open and close?

The eight divisional polls go live in the weeks immediately following MHSAA football championships, which conclude in late November. SI's Michigan prep desk typically publishes the ballot articles in the first two weeks of December and closes voting by the final days of December.

Nomination — how an athlete gets on the ballot — is controlled entirely by SI's Michigan prep staff. SI tracks MHSAA playoff results, all-state selections (AP, MHSFCA), and performance statistics published by MaxPreps and MLive throughout the season. There is no public submission form for this award; coaches and players cannot directly nominate via a public portal. Media visibility during the regular season and playoffs is the primary driver of ballot inclusion.

For more Michigan prep voting contests and how to navigate them, see the Michigan contest voting hub and the broader USA contest guide index.