Jeremiah Smith named Big Ten Receiver of the Year over Makai Lemon

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Last week, the Big Ten announced its all-conference football teams for the 2025 season. Two USC players made the first team: wide receiver Makai Lemon and safety Bishop Fitzgerald.

In addition, the conference announced several other season honors, one of which was the Richter-Howard Receiver of the Year. Notably, Lemon did not win the award, which was instead given to Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith.

When you look at the statistics, the fact that Smith won the award over Lemon is ridiculous. Lemon had over 200 more receiving yards than Smith during the regular season, and the two caught the same number of touchdowns. There was absolutely zero statistical justification for giving the award to Smith.

Smith winning the award over Lemon was a blatant instance of brand-name bias. Smith plays for Ohio State—the defending national champions and arguably the conference’s biggest brand. He emerged on the scene immediately as a true freshman last year, and has been in the spotlight for the past two seasons.

Lemon, on the other hand took few years to emerge on the scene, meaning that many people outside of USC circles were not familiar with him prior to this season. In addition, while he also plays for a big-name program in USC, the Trojans have not had the same level of success as the Buckeyes over the past few years, meaning that we have not gotten to see Lemon play in a ton of big games on a national stage.

We actually saw a very similar scenario with another Ohio State wide receiver two years ago. Despite LSU’s Malik Nabers and Washington’s Rome Odunze having better statistics, the Biletnikoff Award—presented annually to the top pass catcher in the country—was given to Marvin Harrison Jr. of the Buckeyes.

Smith is an incredible player. But awards are about production, not name. Plain and simple, Lemon deserved to win the award, and it is a shame that he did not for reasons other than performance on the football field.

This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: USC football’s Makai Lemon not named Big Ten Receiver of the Year

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