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NEW YORK — Heisman Trophy winners Tim Brown and Gino Torretta, along with two-time All-American Chris Spielman, are among the 16 players to be elected to the College Football Hall of Fame.

Spielman was a two-time First Team All-American and 1987 Lombardi Award winner.He earned back-to-back First Team All-America honors (unanimous in 1987 and consensus in 1986) en route to leading Ohio State to three consecutive bowl games and establishing himself as one of the all-time greats in the Buckeye program.

Others selected for induction were: Penn State running back Curt Warner; New Mexico State halfback Pervis Atkins; Arizona defensive back Chuck Cecil; Auburn fullback Ed Dyas; West Virginia quarterback Major Harris; BYU tight end Gordon Hudson; Alabama linebacker Woodrow Lowe; Stanford receiver Ken Margerum, Texas defensive lineman Steve McMichael; Iowa linebacker Larry Station; Georgia Tech defensive end Pat Swilling; and Nebraska defensive end Grant Wistrom.

The NFF’s veteran’s committee selected Williams Lewis, who played center for Harvard from 1892-93 and was the first black player to be picked as an All-American by Walter Camp, one of the pioneers of the game.

John Robinson, who coached Southern California and UNLV, will also be inducted in December.

Brown played on a high school football team that won four games in three seasons and he went to Notre Dame thinking about a career as a computer scientist.

Torretta went to Miami because Stanford didn’t want him. He wasn’t sure he’d ever get to start for the Hurricanes, but football was at least a path to a free education.

Brown and Torretta didn’t begin their college careers aspiring to be Heisman Trophy winners and Hall of Famers, but that’s what they became.

The two Heisman winners were among the 18 players and coaches selected to the College Football Hall of Fame on Thursday.

“When you picked up a helmet and a football when you were 8, 9 years old, the last thing you thought about was ending up in the college football Hall of Fame,” said Brown, the 1987 Heisman winner for Notre Dame.

Brown and Torretta, the former Miami quarterback, and former Syracuse coach Dick MacPherson were at a news conference at the Nasdaq stock market to announce the latest National Football Foundation’s latest Hall of Fame class.

“To be able to be selected in this tremendously honored group, there’s nowhere to go from here,” said MacPherson, who won 111 games with Syracuse and Massachusetts.

Brown grew up in Dallas and was the best player on a bad high school team. It left him humble.

“I had no reason to be jumping for joy. Everybody was 5-foot-9 and I was 5-11,” Brown said. “I went to college to get a great education. That’s why I chose the University of Notre Dame. I was content with just doing that until Lou Holtz got there.”

Holtz became the Fighting Irish coach in 1986, two years after Brown arrived in South Bend, Ind. Holtz revitalized the program and pushed Brown to aspire to greatness.

“When Lou got there he started putting more pressure on me and putting me in position to really succeed,” Brown said. “All of sudden I realized I could be more than just a good football player.”

Brown became one of the most-dynamic players in the country.

During his junior season in 1986, he set a Notre Dame record with 1,937 all-purpose yards. The next year, Brown caught 39 passes, scored three touchdowns and became Notre Dame’s first Heisman winner since 1964.

Brown went on to be drafted in the first round by the Oakland Raiders and became one of the most productive receivers in NFL history, recording 10 consecutive seasons of at least 75 catches.

Torretta grew up just outside of San Francisco, wanting to play for the Cardinal.

“I knew Stanford’s education was very valuable and a great degree and that’s the way I looked at it. I was going to have an opportunity to get a scholarship but to me that meant it paid for my education,” he said.

“Unfortunately, (Stanford) said I wasn’t good enough — or fortunately.”

Torretta’s brother, Geoff, was the backup quarterback to Miami’s first Heisman Trophy winner, Vinny Testaverde, and hardly ever played.

When the Hurricanes recruited Gino, they warned him he might end up following his brother’s path.

“It’s awful hard to turn down, when you go into their offices and the last five (starting quarterbacks) are on the cover of Sports Illustrated,” Torretta said. “I wanted to have a chance to win a national championship.”

Torretta started his final two college seasons, won the 1992 Heisman and went 26-2 as a starter.

“Everything worked out, we won acouple of titles,” he said. “You do good things and you’re a good person, you end up in good places.”

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Alabama coach Nick Saban spoke after the No. 2 Crimson Tide’s 24-20 victory over Ole Miss on Saturday about his team’s lack of self-discipline.

“Discipline is doing what you’re supposed to do the way you’re supposed to do it when it’s supposed to get done,” Saban said. “But self-discipline means you can do it in any circumstance whether you feel like it or not. You make yourself do it.”

 Listen to the coach. Don’t give in to the dread in the pit of your BCS stomach that the Big Ten champion and the Pacific-10 champion have reasserted themselves in the national championship race.

You know you want to scream, “Not Ohio State! Not again!” Don’t do it.

You know you want to penalize USC, not reward it, for winning at Washington State 69-0. Don’t do it. Had the game been in Los Angeles instead of Pullman, the score may not have gotten out of control. Trojans coach Pete Carroll could have emptied his bench. With only 64 players on the USC travel roster, per Pac-10 rules, Carroll didn’t have a bench to empty.

But let’s get back to Ohio State. The fear that the Buckeyes have rewritten their name on the short list of BCS Championship Game contenders is based not only on their back-to-back losses in the past two of these games, but also the 35-3 beatdown Ohio State suffered against USC last month. Your fears may be valid. But consider:

First of all, Ohio State beat a very good Michigan State team 45-7 in East Lansing. As much as it may hurt to say it, the Buckeyes on Saturday looked like one of the best teams in the country.

Second of all, Ohio State next plays Penn State. The winner of their game in Columbus on Saturday night will be one of the best teams in the country, even if it’s leading the Big Ten.

And third, with Missouri and BYU eliminated from the national championship race, there is that much more room for an Ohio State to re-enter the discussion.

The Nittany Lions overcame a sluggish start, scoring the last 39 points of the game to defeat Michigan 46-17. Penn State performed the mirror image of Alabama by starting slow and finishing fast. That will always be more impressive than a team that starts fast and hangs on.

“We’re not just focused on winning,” Saban said after the game. “We’re focused on how we win.”

If it will make you feel better, concentrate on the way Texas toyed with Missouri in a 56-31 victory Saturday night. When the Longhorns ascended to No. 1 last week, they earned a combined 83 of 126 first-place votes between the AP and coaches polls. Between their performance and that of the Tide, the Longhorns received 123 of 126 first-place votes Sunday. One team looked championship-ready again this week. Ohio State did too, and if the Buckeyes find a way to upset Penn State, you may as well get ready to deal with them again.