FAYETTEVILLE -- Former University of Arkansas All-Americans Dan Hampton and Brandon Burlsworth represent the Razorbacks on a star-studded list of nominees for the 2021 College Football Hall of Fame released on Tuesday by the National Football Foundation.
The ballot features 78 players and seven coaches from the Football Bowl Subdivision and 99 players and 33 coaches from the divisional ranks.
"It's an enormous honor to just be on the College Football Hall of Fame ballot considering more than 5.4 million people have played college football and only 1,027 players have been inducted," said Steve Hatchell, NFF president and CEO in a statement.
A requirement for inclusion on the annual ballot is making first-team All-America status. The ballot was emailed Tuesday to more than 12,000 NFF members and current Hall of Famers, whose votes will be tabulated and submitted to the NFF's Honors Courts, chaired by former Ohio State great and two-time Heisman Trophy winner Archie Griffin, which selects the class.
The College Football Hall of Fame class will be announced in early 2021, and those honorees will be inducted at the 64th NFF Annual awards dinner on Dec. 7, 2021, in New York City.
Hampton played his high school football in Jacksonville before earning All-America honors in 1978 at Arkansas and becoming the fourth pick in the 1979 NFL Draft by the Chicago Bears. Hampton, a four-time All-Pro and NFL defensive player of the year in 1982 by Pro Football Weekly, was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2002.
A member of the NFL's All-Decade team of the 1980s and a member of the 100 greatest Bears of all time, Hampton was selected No. 2 on the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette's list of the all-time greatest Razorbacks in pro football published in April.
Hampton was first nominated for the College Football Hall of Fame in 2016 and was also on the ballot in 2018 and 2019. Burlsworth has previously been nominated in 2011, 2013, 2018 and 2019.
Former Razorback great Darren McFadden, a two-time All-American, Doak Walker Award winner and Heisman Trophy runner-up, was voted into the hall in 2018 in his first year on the ballot and was inducted in 2019.
Burlsworth, perhaps the most famous walk-on in NCAA football history, earned All-America honors in 1998 before being drafted by the Indianapolis Colts in the third round of the 1999 NFL Draft.
Burlsworth, from Harrison, was a two-time All-SEC selection, a member of the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame and has had his No. 77 jersey retired by the University of Arkansas.
He died in a car accident 11 days after being drafted on April 28, 1999, on his way back to Harrison from Fayetteville. His name graces the Burlsworth Trophy, which has been given annually since 2010 to the top player in college football who began his career as a walk-on, and the Brandon Burlsworth Foundation supports charitable causes such as Burls Kids and Eyes of a Champion, which has partnered with Wal-Mart to provide glasses to underprivileged children.
Burlsworth's story was made into the movie Greater, which released in the summer of 2016.
Other top names on the ballot include Heisman Trophy winners Carson Palmer (USC) and Rashaan Salaam (Colorado), Pro Football Hall of Famer Champ Bailey (Georgia) and NCAA career sacks per-game leader Dwight Freeney of Syracuse.
It's a big year for kickers on the ballot with standouts such as Morten Andersen (Michigan State), Jason Elam (Hawaii), Tony Franklin (Texas A&M), Sebastian Janikowski (Florida State), John Lee (UCLA) and Luis Zendejas (Arizona State).
Among the FBS coaches on the ballot are Oklahoma's Bob Stoops, who led the Sooners to four NCAA championship game appearances, including the 2000 title, and former Missouri and Toledo Coach Gary Pinkel.