VOTING FOR 2026 OPENS ON SATURDAY MARCH 14th
After the deadline for submission (Midnight on March, 13th), all essays will be posted to VUSports.com in the “Villanova Basketball (Non-Members) Forum” & NovaNation Forum under the heading "2026 Villanova Student Essay Contest" on Saturday, March 14th. Voting link will be live by noon on March 14th.
Only submissions sent directly to the 2026 Essay Entry google form will be considered for the contest. All submitted essays will only have Essay Response and a numeric identifier assigned when posted for voting. We are not sharing any name/class year/email/cell phone# during the voting process. The content and quality of your words is what matters most.
Voting will be tallied across many platforms this year. Voting will be tallied as follows:
- VUSports - NovaNation - count for 80% of total
- VUSports - Villanova Basketball & Sports (Non-Members) - count for 5% of total
- Twitter using #2026VillanovaStudentChallenge - count for 5% of total
- Instagram using #2026VillanovaStudentChallenge - count for 5% of total
- Votes from previous winners of the Villanova Student Essay Challenge - count for 5% of total
Use this google form link to cast your vote for the 2026 Villanova Student Essay Challenge.
Social Media Voting
- Twitter using #2026VillanovaStudentEssayChallenge counts for 5% of total
- Instagram using #2026VillanovaStudentEssayChallenge counts for 5% of total
For both voting on both Instagram and Twitter, please follow this format when casting your votes:
ESSAY ##
#2026VillanovaStudentEssayChallenge
Any tie in the voting from the members will be broken by members of VUSports.com message board.
Deadline for entries is midnight Friday, March 13th 2026. Voting starts on Saturday, March 14th. A separate thread will be created for VUSports.com that will contain all the essay/entries. Essay votes will only be accepted via the google form.
Voting ends at 6:00pm EST on Sunday, March 15th.
Winner will be notified by no later than 8PM on Sunday, March 15th.
Final selection will be posted no later than 10pm on Sunday, March 15th to both the Villanova Basketball (Non-Members) Forum & NovaNation Forum and via social media (FB/Instagram/Twitter).