UAA Announces 2017 Spring All-Academic Honors

UAA Announces 2017 Spring All-Academic Honors

The University Athletic Association has announced its spring listing of student-athletes to be honored with All-Academic Recognition. The spring academic honor roll includes 519 student-athletes representing teams participating in the four men’s and four women’s spring sports for which the UAA sponsors competition.

Full Release

Within the UAA, All-Academic Recognition is awarded to student-athletes who have completed at least one full year of college study and who carry a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.300.  The 3.300 minimum cumulative grade point average is the same academic standard used as a qualifying threshold by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) for the nomination of Academic All-America® candidates in all sports.

The 519 recipients of UAA All-Academic Recognition represent approximately 63 percent of the total eligible UAA student-athletes — members of all teams who have completed at least one year of undergraduate study. Percentages varied by institution with a high of 79 percent of eligible student-athletes earning All-Academic honors. Percentages among sports varied with a high of 72 percent of eligible tennis athletes receiving All-Academic recognition.

The UAA Presidents Council established a program of All-Academic Recognition in April 1998.  Qualifying student-athletes are recognized at the completion of the fall, winter, and spring seasons each year. The honor is intended to recognize the high level of academic achievement demonstrated by student-athletes who effectively balance their significant commitment of time, effort, and energy in athletic endeavor with their highly challenging academic responsibilities.

Individuals and teams throughout the UAA have been consistently recognized for their academic and athletic achievements. During the 2015-16 academic year, 37 student-athletes from UAA institutions were recognized as Academic All-Americans, 148 received All-America honors in team or individual sports, and nine garnered individual national championship event titles or national Player of the Year honors. In addition, nine student-athletes were among the select group of seniors across the country named NCAA Postgraduate Scholars. In 2015-16 NCAA championship competition, 22 UAA teams finished in the top ten in their national championships, while another 17 finished in the top twenty.

Biennial studies completed by the Association over the last 16 years have consistently shown the cumulative grade point averages of athletic teams have been statistically equal to the campus population GPA. In the most recent study, covering the 2014-15 academic year, UAA female student athletes had an overall combined average cumulative GPA of 3.42, while UAA male student-athletes had an overall combined average cumulative GPA of 3.30.  Of the 68 women’s teams and 70 men’s teams included in the study, 88 teams (64 percent) met or exceeded the existing 3.30 GPA standard for nominating individuals for Academic All-America® recognition.