The Walter Payton Award is awarded annually to the most outstanding offensive player in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) of college football as chosen by a nationwide panel of media and college sports information directors.

The award was named in honor of National Football League (NFL) legend Walter Payton, who starred at Jackson State University in the early 1970s.

The most recent winner of the award is Tommy Mellott, a quarterback from Montana State who earned the honor during the 2024 season.

This is a list of the colleges and universities who have had a player win a Walter Payton Award.

[6][a] In 2019, Trey Lance of North Dakota State was the first freshman to receive the award.