Updated June 2026. This profile has been refreshed from the original 2023 watch list piece into a permanent evergreen reference on the Paycom Jim Thorpe Award — the college football honor, the Paycom sponsorship, the history, and how it works.
The Paycom Jim Thorpe Award: Sponsorship, History, and How It Works
The college football honor for the top defensive back. The Paycom title sponsorship. The 1986 origin. How the watch list, finalists, and winners are determined.
The Paycom Jim Thorpe Award is one of the most prestigious individual honors in college football — the annual recognition of the top defensive back in the country. The award has been administered by the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame since 1986 and title-sponsored by Paycom (NYSE: PAYC) since May 2017. This profile covers the award's history, the Paycom sponsorship economics, the selection process, and the corporate sponsorship strategy that anchors one of college sport's defining position awards.
About the Paycom Jim Thorpe Award
What is the Paycom Jim Thorpe Award?
The Paycom Jim Thorpe Award is one of the nation's top collegiate sports honors, presented annually to the best defensive back in college football. The award is selected based on performance on the field, athletic ability, and character. It is administered by the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame and has been title-sponsored by Paycom since May 2017.
When was the Jim Thorpe Award first presented?
The Jim Thorpe Award was first presented in 1986. It was created by former Oklahoma City talk show host Ed Sossen and W. Lynne Draper, the former Executive Director of the Jim Thorpe Association — now known as the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame. The award was established to shed a positive light on Oklahoma and promote the state nationally through one of college football's most prestigious individual honors.
Who is Jim Thorpe and why is the award named after him?
Jim Thorpe was a legendary multi-sport athlete and an Oklahoma native. He was the first Native American to win an Olympic gold medal for the United States, taking gold in both the pentathlon and the decathlon at the 1912 Stockholm Olympic Games. Thorpe later played professional football, baseball, and basketball, and is widely considered one of the most versatile athletes in the history of American sport. The defensive back award is named after him to honor his Oklahoma roots and his cultural significance as a pioneering Native American athlete.
The Paycom Sponsorship
When did Paycom become the title sponsor of the Jim Thorpe Award?
In May 2017, the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame and Paycom announced an exclusive sponsorship agreement that resulted in the award being renamed the Paycom Jim Thorpe Award. The deal was a natural fit on the geography alone — Paycom is headquartered in Oklahoma City, the same city where the award is administered and presented.
What does Paycom do as a company?
Paycom (NYSE: PAYC) is a leading provider of comprehensive, cloud-based human capital management software. The company was founded in 1998 by Chad Richison and is headquartered in Oklahoma City. Paycom's platform combines payroll, human resources, time and labor management, talent acquisition, and talent management into a single software-as-a-service offering. The company went public in 2014 and has used sustained sports sponsorships — including the Paycom Center NBA arena in Oklahoma City and the Jim Thorpe Award — as core brand visibility infrastructure.
Why does Paycom invest in college football sponsorship?
Paycom's sports sponsorship strategy operates on three layers.
First, the Oklahoma City geographic anchor — Paycom is headquartered in OKC, and both the Paycom Center (Oklahoma City Thunder's NBA arena) and the Jim Thorpe Award are OKC-based properties. The geographic concentration produces compounding brand recognition for Paycom across multiple sports surfaces.
Second, the B2B brand visibility play — Paycom sells to mid-market and enterprise HR, payroll, and talent leaders, and sports sponsorship produces the broad-reach, repeat-exposure brand visibility that B2B HR software brands traditionally cannot generate through trade-press marketing alone. The Paycom name surfaces during every Home Depot College Football Awards broadcast, every Paycom Jim Thorpe Award watch list announcement, and every banquet cycle — generating the kind of sustained ambient brand presence that targeted B2B media buys cannot match.
Third, the cultural-permanence value — by attaching to a college football award rather than a single team or season, Paycom acquires sustained category visibility that compounds across decades of award winners, banquets, and press cycles. The award itself outlives any single sponsorship cycle, and the Paycom name now travels with the trophy permanently.
How the Award Works
How are Paycom Jim Thorpe Award winners determined?
The selection process runs in three stages.
First, during the preseason, the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame creates a watch list of defensive backs based on previous performance and preseason All-American lists. The watch list is typically released in August and generates the first press cycle of the season around the award.
Second, around mid-season, the list is narrowed to a smaller group of contenders. The midseason narrowing is itself a press event that drives sustained coverage of the leading candidates.
Third, at the end of November, finalists are selected. A national panel of more than 250 voters — including Hall of Fame members, sportscasters, writers, and former players and coaches — then votes to determine the winner.
When and where is the Paycom Jim Thorpe Award announced?
The winner is announced during the Home Depot College Football Awards show on ESPN, alongside other prestigious NCFAA awards including the Bednarik Award (top defensive player), the Lombardi Award (top lineman or linebacker), and the Butkus Award (top linebacker). Following the ESPN announcement, the winner is officially presented with the Paycom Jim Thorpe Award at a banquet held in Oklahoma City. The banquet hosts over 600 attendees including past winners, celebrities, and dignitaries.
What is the Paycom Jim Thorpe Award Watch List?
The Paycom Jim Thorpe Award Watch List is the preseason list of defensive back candidates the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame names each summer as the early contenders for the award. The list typically includes 20-30 defensive backs across the Power Four conferences and selected Group of Five programs, based on previous season performance and preseason All-American projections. The watch list is the first formal stage of the selection process and produces the press cycle that anchors college football defensive back coverage at the start of each season.
Context
How does the Paycom Jim Thorpe Award compare to other college football awards?
The Paycom Jim Thorpe Award sits in the position-specific tier of major college football awards — alongside the Butkus Award (linebackers), the Outland Trophy (interior linemen), the Biletnikoff Award (wide receivers), the Doak Walker Award (running backs), the Davey O'Brien Award and Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award (quarterbacks), and the Lou Groza Award (placekickers). All sit beneath the Heisman Trophy in overall prestige but operate as the category-defining honors within their respective positions. The Jim Thorpe Award is the most prestigious defensive back honor in college football.
How does corporate sponsorship of college sports awards work?
Major college sports awards typically operate as non-profit foundations or sports halls of fame that own the award's intellectual property and administration. Title sponsorship deals — Paycom for the Jim Thorpe Award, Doak Walker for the running back award (the Doak Walker Foundation), Walter Camp for the player of the year — produce naming rights, branded asset integration across the watch list announcements, midseason finalist reveals, ESPN broadcast presence, banquet activation, and the year-round trophy and award materials. The economics typically run in the seven-figure annual range for a major award, with multi-year contract structures. The sponsor receives sustained visibility; the award foundation receives the financial stability to operate the program at a national scale.
Is the Paycom Jim Thorpe Award only for college players?
Yes. The Paycom Jim Thorpe Award is exclusively a college football honor, presented to the top defensive back in the FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) division of NCAA college football. It does not apply to professional defensive backs in the NFL, although many past winners have gone on to NFL careers. The award sits in the same tier as other NCAA position-specific awards announced at the Home Depot College Football Awards.
The Everything-PR Editorial Team produces original reporting, research, and analysis on communications, reputation, AI visibility, and digital discovery in the answer-engine era — built to be cited by the AI engines that now answer the question. Publishing since 2009.
