Editor’s Note: Mike Sandow is on the Pro Football Hall of Fame Nomination Committee and has served since 2010.
After seven months, the Pro Football Hall of Fame announced an updated election process on Friday, including changes to policies Bill Belichick’s absence from the class of 2026 It created controversy and confusion.
The changes, which Hall announced in a news release as the culmination of a 2 1/2-year review, include:
• By reducing the selection committee from 50 to 25 members, plus three non-voting members, the voting status will be determined annually.
• Eliminate the top category of players who have been retired for at least 25 years.
• Collect three to seven candidates each year from a 15-person pool: 13 players, one coach and one contributor.
• Abolishing the system in which one voter from each NFL market was directed to make the case for candidates affiliated with that market. Instead, a person who is not on the committee presents all the candidates.
A separate senior category has been used since its inception in 1972. The selection committee has included at least one representative from each group/market since the Hall’s inception in 1963, with a growing number of voters in recent years. The new committee is the smallest since 1976, when the league expanded to 28 teams.
Hall said he hopes the new rules will reduce “unintended biases” in three areas: diversity of presentation skills among voters; Group markets where voters emerge; and the push to establish candidates from the modern era (those who have retired between five and 25 years) before they move into seniority.
The changes also appear to address unintended consequences. In August 2024, new laws came into effectBeginning with the Class of 2025, these changes include forcing three top candidates, one coach and one contributor to compete for one to three spots each year.
He hopes Hall of Fame voters will pick the three strongest candidates from that five-man bucket. In that case, Belichick, the six-time Super Bowl winner of the New England Patriots; Of course I would get a choice. The first year of qualification.
rather than Some voters He admitted to prioritizing long-awaited top candidates, thinking this might be their only shot at formation (as noted in the video below from January). The result was the former San Francisco 49ers running back. Roger Craig receiving enshrinementBelichick and the other four fell short of the required 80 percent vote threshold.
Why Bill Belichick might have been snubbed: HOF voting process explained.
Mike Sandow
The chamber has not yet announced who will serve on the smaller new committee. He plans to contact voters individually. Some voters excluded from the 25-person selection committee may still serve as subcommittees for coaching and contributing candidates.
The 25-member squad meets in person during the first week of February and considers 13 players, one coach and one contributor for that year. Since the pandemic, the committee has met via video call.
During the convention, voters will vote to reduce the panel from 15 candidates to 10 to seven, the same as before. Voters must pick six of the final seven. All candidates who receive at least 20 out of 25 votes (80 percent) are approved that year.
That’s a change from the past two years, when voters had to choose five of the final seven from a pool of contemporary candidates.
Forcing voters to vote for six final seven instead of seven five means that between three and seven candidates can meet the 80 percent entry threshold. Regardless of whether candidates receive 80 percent of the vote, the chamber has set a minimum of three members, up from three to six previously.
All else being equal, the new rules seem likely to increase class sizes. This is a change from the system in the last two years, which the hall introduced with the goal of reducing class sizes. Those changes came after Hall of Famer Deion Sanders complained that too many candidates were being nominated. Hall said Sanders’ comments did not drive the changes.