In this Oct. 18, 2008 file photo, Texas Tech quarterback Graham Harrell during an NCAA college football game against Texas A&M in College Station, Texas. Harrell entered this season a known quantity, having been at or near the top in passing nationally for two years. He has inched near the NCAA record for career touchdowns and busted plenty of conference passing marks.

Texas Tech quarterback Graham Harrell shrugged when the Heisman Trophy committee left him off its list of finalists. His coach fumed.

Harrell put up more yards passing than Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford, Colt McCoy of Texas and defending Heisman winner Tim Tebow of Florida, and led his team to the same 11-1 record those three stars.

Yet Harrell won’t be sitting next to them Saturday night at the awards show in New York.

“If Graham is not invited to the Heisman, they ought to quit giving out the award,” Texas Tech coach Mike Leach said in a statement Wednesday night after the finalists were announced. “It is a shameless example of politics ruling over performance. The other guys are deserving, but he has earned a place alongside them.”

The Heisman committee has chosen as many as six finalists in the past, but there’s no definitive method to determine how many are invited to New York. Harrell said perennially strong programs hold the edge.

“Those things are going to get the benefit of the doubt when all things are equal,” Harrell said from Orlando, Fla., where he was attending The Home Depot/ESPNU College Football Awards on Thursday night. “Sometimes you’re going to get recognition, sometimes you’re not.”

Harrell won the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award this week and was one of three finalists for the Davey O’Brien Award (McCoy and Bradford are the others). He passed for 4,747 yards and needs two more touchdown throws to break the national career record of 131 set by Hawaii’s Colt Brennan last year.

“I feel like he deserves to be there, but on the other side that’s just not my Super Bowl. I don’t think it’s his Super Bowl,” said Sam Harrell, Graham’s dad and coach at Ennis, where they won a Texas high school title together.

Harrell said he was focused on leading his eighth-ranked Red Raiders past No. 20 Mississippi — the only team to beat Florida and Tebow this year — in the Cotton Bowl.