The public vote for one of those who are shortlisted. That shortlist is produced by the BBC's Director of Sport. They literally chose the 6 person shortlist. The BBC, across their network are pushing agendas of all kinds, upon the watching (paying) public. Some can see it and some choose not too, that's no problem.
As for the SPOTY award, a few names that are more deserving of the award, imo are:
- Ronnie O'Sullivan won his 8th UK open title this year, meanwhile remaining the best player in his field, at the age of 48!
- Frankie Dettori has continued to ride winners all over the world, in possibly the most gruelling of sports and has been a the top of horse racing for 30/35 years
- Kevin Sinfield ran 7 (SEVEN!) marathons in 7 days, in support of MND and Rob Burrows. Not only has Sinfield been one of the best to play Rugby league, he has now mastered marathon running on a scale everyone of us could only dream of (not to mention, he has raised millions for MND).
Others that come into the conversation and are more deserving imo, if Earps is seriously in the elite bracket are:
- Katarina Johnson-Thompson won the World Championship Heptathlon this year. This was after being severely hampered by injury for some time. She was the best, across 7 different events. Takes some doing!
- Dave Ryding has flown the flag for Britain in alpine skiing during his long career. In an industry where he gets very little financial support from Sport England/UK athletics (versus his counterparts from France, Austria, Swiss, Italy, USA, Canada etc), the fact he's managed to get multiple podium finishes at World Cup level is astounding. His latest came in February, in Austria.
- Leon Edwards is a world champion (something Earps didn't manage) at welterweight in UFC. A literal world champion. He didn't even make the shortlist
You mentioned Earps has 'done her bit raising the women's game'. While that is unquestionable, when did this award become more about profiling and selling GK shirts, rather than individual and collective achievement? For reference, this is the same GK that made an absolute howler at Wembley last month, which in turn cost England (Playing as Britain) a place at the Olympics next year (they missed out on qualificaton by one goal to the Netherlands).
Personally speaking, it just doesn't feel like this award is based upon solely sporting achievement anymore and that is a shame.
