Chase Goodbread of The Tuscaloosa News in Alabama won first place in the Division D explanatory category of the 2025 Associated Press Sports Editors contest.
For his winning entry, Goodbread reviewed every snap from the opponent’s goal line in 2024 for 15 of the top programs in college football, spanning all four power conferences, and found that the shotgun formation resulted in significantly fewer touchdowns than plays called with the quarterback taking the snap from under center.
From the opponent’s 1-yard line, Goodbread found, those teams scored on just 56% of shotgun snaps, compared to a 73% touchdown rate from under center. Yet despite that disparity, offensive coordinators called the shotgun formation more often: 90 shotgun looks versus 72.
APSE contest winners will be honored at the 2026 APSE Summer Conference banquet July 18 at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, Va. Registration for the conference is open; you can register right here.
Goodbread will receive a first-place plaque. The second- through 10th-place finishers will receive frame-worthy certificates.
Sports editors submitted 56 entries in the Division D explanatory category. Contest chair Perryn Keys and APSE officers Paul Barrett, Erik Hall and Tony Maluso prepared the entries.
Contest results: Digital, print and podcasts | Writing and photography
Judges convened in late February, in person at the APSE Winter Conference in Las Vegas and remotely around the nation, to select the top entrants. The committee determined 10 finalists, with each judge ranking the entries in order from 1 to 10. The final 10 were given to a second judging group in late February and March, ranking the entries from Nos. 1 to 10 in the same fashion.
The final rankings are determined by tallying the ballots.
The top 10 are listed, with first-place votes in parentheses, along with links to the winning entries.
The contest is open to APSE members. Click here to join.
1. Chase Goodbread, The Tuscaloosa News (6)
2. Sean Highkin, The Rose Garden Report
3. Brett Vito, Denton Record-Chronicle
4. Brad Schlossman, Grand Forks Herald
5. Adam Cole, Montgomery Advertiser
6. Mennatalla Ibrahim and Sam Jane, The Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism
7. Christina Long, WholeHogSports.com
8. Matt Trowbridge, Rockford Register Star
9. Calum McAndrew, Columbia Daily Tribune
10. Kyle Grabowski, MetroWest Daily News
