Three previous first-place winners occupied top spots again in the 23rd annual FWAA Best Writing Contest results announced on Sept. 1.

ESPN.com’s Ivan Maisel claimed first place for the third straight year in Best Game Story Category. This year, Maisel’s winning account: Oregon’s victory over Florida State in one of the two College Football Playoff semifinal games. Maisel also added an Honorable Mention in the Columns Category.

The other previous winners were Pete Thamel of Sports Illustrated and Ted Miller, also of ESPN.com. Thamel won the Feature Category this year for a well-researched piece on new Texas Longhorns coach Charlie Strong, showing an emotional side of the coach’s trail to one of college football’s top jobs. Miller won the Column Category for an inside look at the rise of Oregon’s program and with it the expectations and the change of attitude in Eugene.

Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star was a first-time winner for his Enterprise Category Story on the rise and fall of the Kansas football program, from a Top 10 team in 2007 to one of the lower echelon teams only a few years later.

Andrea Adelson of ESPN was a second-place finisher in the Enterprise Category and Columns.  One of her stories focused on former head coaches at UAB and New Mexico State re-starting their careers and the other was a column on a perceived in-season snub of Florida State by the College Football Playoff Selection Committee.

The winners in each category will receive a personalized football from The Big Game and a cash prize.  Second and third places win cash prizes and certificates. Honorable mentions receive certificates.  All will be recognized at the FWAA’s Annual Award Breakfast on Jan. 11, 2016, in Scottsdale, Arizona.

The following is the complete list of honorees in the 2015 FWAA Best Writing Contest.  Click on the write’s name to read the first-place story in each category.

Game

First place — Ivan Maisel, ESPN.com

Second place — Jesse Temple, FOXSportsWisconsin.com

Third place — James Crepea, Montgomery Advertiser

Honorable mention — Mike Griffith, MLive Media Group; Steve Helwagen, Bucknuts.com; Matt Fortuna, ESPN.com

Feature

First place — Pete Thamel, Sports Illustrated

Second place — Andrew Greif, The Oregonian

Third place — Dennis Dodd, CBSSports.com

Honorable mention —  Brian Hamilton, SI.com; Tod Palmer, The Kansas City Star; Bill Landis, cleveland.com/The Plain Dealer

Column

First place — Ted Miller, ESPN.com

Second place — Andrea Adelson, ESPN.com

Third place — Ben Jones, StateCollege.com

Honorable mention — Ivan Maisel, ESPN.com; Bill Bender, Sporting News; David Visser, TomahawkNation.com; Glenn Guilbeau, Gannett Louisiana Newspapers

Enterprise

First place — Rustin Dodd, The Kansas City Star

Second place — Andrea Adelson, ESPN.com

Third place — Bobby La Gesse, Ames Tribune

Honorable mention — Alex Scarborough, ESPN.com; Robert Gagliardi, Wyoming Tribune Eagle; Kevin Armstrong, New York Daily News