Academic All-America
Encyclopedia
Academic All-America program is a student-athlete recognition program. It is now presented by ESPN The Magazine
Academic All-America (formerly sponored by Verizon and GTE
) and administered by College Sports Information Directors of America
or CoSIDA. The program selects an honorary
sport
s team composed of the most outstanding student
athletes of a specific season
for positions in various sports—who in turn are given the honorific "Academic All-American". Since 1952 CoSIDA has bestowed Academic All-American recognition on male and female athletes in Divisions I, II, and III of the National Collegiate Athletic Association
(NCAA) as well as NAIA
athletes, covering all championship sports. The phrases "Academic All-America" and "Academic All-American" are protected trademark
s of CoSIDA. In each program, regional Academic All-District selections are made with the first-team All-District selections being eligible for Academic All-America team selections.
, basketball
, football
, soccer
, and track & field/cross country
and Women's basketball, soccer, softball
, volleyball
, and track & field/cross country, as well as at-large teams for both men and women in Division I, II and III and NAIA in all NCAA championship sports. Currently, the sports that CoSIDA recognizes as eligible for at-large Academic All-American recognition are Women's bowling
, Men's and Women's fencing
, Women's field hockey
, Men's and Women's golf
, Men's and Women's gymnastics
, Men's and Women's ice hockey, Men's and Women's lacrosse
, Men's and Women's rifle
, Women's rowing
, Men's and Women's skiing
, Men's and Women's swimming
, Men's and Women's tennis
, Men's volleyball
, Men's and Women's water polo
, and Men's wrestling.
Capital One became the named sponsor of the program on January 31, 2011. CoSIDA has registered a trademark
for the name, "Academic All-America" which it uses for its student-athlete recognition program. The Capital One Academic All-America program administered by CoSIDA is not related to such programs administered or sponsored by coaches' organizations. As a result, cease and desist orders have been granted to protect the trademark at times. Various sports that have similar programs have had to use names such as All-Academic to recognize scholar athletes.
Prior to the relationship with Capital One, the Academic All-American Award has had other named corporate sponsors such as ESPN, Verizon and Verizon's corporate predecessor GTE who were sponsors from 1985 until the mid 2000s. In 1981, the National Collegiate Athletic Association
sponsored the program. From 1985 until the 1999–2000 academic year the honorees were called GTE All-Americans, but during the 2000–01 academic year they became known as Verizon All-Americans when Verizon acquired GTE. Verizon continued to be the named sponsor through the 2003–04 academic year when they did not renew their rights. ESPN the Magazine became the sponsor during the 2004–05 academic year and remained sponsor until September 2010. Fall 2010 teams, continued to bear the ESPN sponsorship name. Capital one took over the sponsorship in January 2011.
, and 2-year colleges. First, second and third team selections are made for both divisions in most Academic All-America programs. However, the football programs only select a first and second team. The football University Division includes both Football Bowl Subdivision and Football Championship Subdivision.
Nominations must be made on the CoSIDA website by a current dues-paying member with a CoSIDA-issued user name and password for the academic year at issue. Formerly, nominations were made by pen and ink
and then with typewritten
nominations. The CoSIDA members nominate student-athletes only from the academic institution that they are affiliated with. The nominees must be a starter or important reserve with at least a 3.30 cumulative grade point average (on a 4.0 scale) at his/her current institution. Nominees must have participated in at least 50 percent of the team’s games at the position listed on the nomination form (where applicable). In baseball and softball, pitchers must have at least 10.0 inning
s pitched. Nominees are ineligible until the completion of one full calendar year at his/her current institution and attainment of sophomore athletic eligibility. Transfers, graduate students and two-year college graduates must have completed one full calendar year at the nominating institution to be eligible. Graduate school nominees must have a cumulative GPA of 3.30 or better both as an undergraduate and in graduate school. Except for at-large program, there are no limits in the number of athletes an institution may nominate. In the at-large program, nominations are limited to three per school per gender (a total of three men's at-large candidates and three women's at-large candidates). If an institution participates in both the college and the university divisions, it may nominate a total of three men and three women between the two divisions.
In each program, All-District selections are elected by the CoSIDA membership with the resulting first-team All-District selections advancing to the national ballot for Academic All-America team selections. The national ballot is cast by members of the Academic All-America Committee and the CoSIDA Board of Directors. Each program also recognizes a single athlete for both the University and College Divisions who are referred to as Academic All-America of the Year. Recent winners of this recognition include Florida Gator
Tim Tebow
for the University Division of Football in both 2008 and 2009 and Kansas Jayhawk Cole Aldrich
for the University Division of men's basketball in 2010. In addition, there is an annual selection by the College Sports Information Directors of America
and its Academic All-America sponsor of the individual athlete selected as the most outstanding Academic All-America of the 816 annual selections. Since 1996 one winner each has been chosen from both the College and University Divisions. Between 1988 and 1995 one winner was chosen per year.
During the 1987–88 academic year, CoSIDA began selecting one student as the most outstanding team member of the year. Since 1996, two outstanding team members have been selected, one each from the College division and the University division.
ESPN The Magazine
ESPN The Magazine is a bi-weekly sports magazine published by the ESPN sports network in Bristol, Connecticut in the United States. The first issue was published on March 11, 1998....
Academic All-America (formerly sponored by Verizon and GTE
GTE
GTE Corporation, formerly General Telephone & Electronics Corporation was the largest independent telephone company in the United States during the days of the Bell System....
) and administered by College Sports Information Directors of America
College Sports Information Directors of America
College Sports Information Directors of Americaor CoSIDA is the organization that has since 1952 bestowed Academic All-American recognition on male and female athletes in Divisions I, II, and III of the National Collegiate Athletic Association —covering all NCAA championship sports—and NAIA...
or CoSIDA. The program selects an honorary
Title of honor
An honorary title or title of honor is a title bestowed upon individuals or organizations as an award in recognition of their merits.Sometimes the title bears the same or nearly the same name as a title of authority, but the person bestowed does not have to carry any duties, possibly except for...
sport
Sport
A Sport is all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical fitness and provide entertainment to participants. Sport may be competitive, where a winner or winners can be identified by objective means, and may require a degree...
s team composed of the most outstanding student
Student
A student is a learner, or someone who attends an educational institution. In some nations, the English term is reserved for those who attend university, while a schoolchild under the age of eighteen is called a pupil in English...
athletes of a specific season
Season (sports)
In an organized sports league, a season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session. For example, in Major League Baseball, one season lasts approximately from April 1 through October 1; in Association football, it is generally from August until May In an...
for positions in various sports—who in turn are given the honorific "Academic All-American". Since 1952 CoSIDA has bestowed Academic All-American recognition on male and female athletes in Divisions I, II, and III of the National Collegiate Athletic Association
National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States...
(NCAA) as well as NAIA
National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics
The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics is an athletic association that organizes college and university-level athletic programs. Membership in the NAIA consists of smaller colleges and universities across the United States. The NAIA allows colleges and universities outside the USA...
athletes, covering all championship sports. The phrases "Academic All-America" and "Academic All-American" are protected trademark
Trademark
A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...
s of CoSIDA. In each program, regional Academic All-District selections are made with the first-team All-District selections being eligible for Academic All-America team selections.
Domain
Currently, CoSIDA is responsible for the annual selection of 816 Academic All-Americans in Men's baseballCollege baseball
College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. Compared to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a less significant contribution to cultivating professional players, as the minor leagues primarily...
, basketball
College basketball
College basketball most often refers to the USA basketball competitive governance structure established by the National Collegiate Athletic Association . Basketball in the NCAA is divided into three divisions: Division I, Division II and Division III....
, football
College football
College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...
, soccer
College soccer
College soccer is a term used to describe association football played by teams who are operated by colleges and universities as opposed to a professional league operated for exclusively financial purposes...
, and track & field/cross country
Cross country running
Cross country running is a sport in which people run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open country, and include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road...
and Women's basketball, soccer, softball
College softball
College softball is softball as played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education, predominantly in the United States. College softball is normally played by women at the intercollegiate level, whereas college baseball is normally played by men.As with other intercollegiate...
, volleyball
Volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...
, and track & field/cross country, as well as at-large teams for both men and women in Division I, II and III and NAIA in all NCAA championship sports. Currently, the sports that CoSIDA recognizes as eligible for at-large Academic All-American recognition are Women's bowling
Bowling
Bowling Bowling Bowling (1375–1425; late Middle English bowle, variant of boule Bowling (1375–1425; late Middle English bowle, variant of boule...
, Men's and Women's fencing
Collegiate fencing
Collegiate fencing has existed for a long time. Some of the earliest programs in the US came from the Ivy League schools, but now there are over 100 fencing programs in the US. Both clubs and varsity teams participate in the sport, however only the varsity teams may participate in the NCAA...
, Women's field hockey
Field hockey
Field Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...
, Men's and Women's golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
, Men's and Women's gymnastics
Gymnastics
Gymnastics is a sport involving performance of exercises requiring physical strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, and balance. Internationally, all of the gymnastic sports are governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique with each country having its own national governing body...
, Men's and Women's ice hockey, Men's and Women's lacrosse
College lacrosse
College lacrosse refers to lacrosse played by student athletes at colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. In both countries, men's field lacrosse and women's lacrosse are played in both the varsity and club levels...
, Men's and Women's rifle
Rifle
A rifle is a firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel that has a helical groove or pattern of grooves cut into the barrel walls. The raised areas of the rifling are called "lands," which make contact with the projectile , imparting spin around an axis corresponding to the...
, Women's rowing
College rowing (United States)
Rowing is one of the oldest intercollegiate sports in the United States. However, rowers comprise only 2.2% of total college athletes. This may be in part because of the status of rowing as an amateur sport and because not all universities have access to suitable bodies of water. In the 2002-03...
, Men's and Women's skiing
Skiing
Skiing is a recreational activity using skis as equipment for traveling over snow. Skis are used in conjunction with boots that connect to the ski with use of a binding....
, Men's and Women's swimming
Swimming (sport)
Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...
, Men's and Women's tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
, Men's volleyball
Volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...
, Men's and Women's water polo
Water polo
Water polo is a team water sport. The playing team consists of six field players and one goalkeeper. The winner of the game is the team that scores more goals. Game play involves swimming, treading water , players passing the ball while being defended by opponents, and scoring by throwing into a...
, and Men's wrestling.
Capital One became the named sponsor of the program on January 31, 2011. CoSIDA has registered a trademark
Trademark
A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...
for the name, "Academic All-America" which it uses for its student-athlete recognition program. The Capital One Academic All-America program administered by CoSIDA is not related to such programs administered or sponsored by coaches' organizations. As a result, cease and desist orders have been granted to protect the trademark at times. Various sports that have similar programs have had to use names such as All-Academic to recognize scholar athletes.
Prior to the relationship with Capital One, the Academic All-American Award has had other named corporate sponsors such as ESPN, Verizon and Verizon's corporate predecessor GTE who were sponsors from 1985 until the mid 2000s. In 1981, the National Collegiate Athletic Association
National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States...
sponsored the program. From 1985 until the 1999–2000 academic year the honorees were called GTE All-Americans, but during the 2000–01 academic year they became known as Verizon All-Americans when Verizon acquired GTE. Verizon continued to be the named sponsor through the 2003–04 academic year when they did not renew their rights. ESPN the Magazine became the sponsor during the 2004–05 academic year and remained sponsor until September 2010. Fall 2010 teams, continued to bear the ESPN sponsorship name. Capital one took over the sponsorship in January 2011.
Process
Team selections are composed of both a University Division, made up of Division I participants, and a College Division, made up of Division II, Division III, NAIANational Association of Intercollegiate Athletics
The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics is an athletic association that organizes college and university-level athletic programs. Membership in the NAIA consists of smaller colleges and universities across the United States. The NAIA allows colleges and universities outside the USA...
, and 2-year colleges. First, second and third team selections are made for both divisions in most Academic All-America programs. However, the football programs only select a first and second team. The football University Division includes both Football Bowl Subdivision and Football Championship Subdivision.
Nominations must be made on the CoSIDA website by a current dues-paying member with a CoSIDA-issued user name and password for the academic year at issue. Formerly, nominations were made by pen and ink
Ink
Ink is a liquid or paste that contains pigments and/or dyes and is used to color a surface to produce an image, text, or design. Ink is used for drawing and/or writing with a pen, brush, or quill...
and then with typewritten
Typewriter
A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical device with keys that, when pressed, cause characters to be printed on a medium, usually paper. Typically one character is printed per keypress, and the machine prints the characters by making ink impressions of type elements similar to the pieces...
nominations. The CoSIDA members nominate student-athletes only from the academic institution that they are affiliated with. The nominees must be a starter or important reserve with at least a 3.30 cumulative grade point average (on a 4.0 scale) at his/her current institution. Nominees must have participated in at least 50 percent of the team’s games at the position listed on the nomination form (where applicable). In baseball and softball, pitchers must have at least 10.0 inning
Inning
Inning is a municipality in the district of Erding in Bavaria in Germany....
s pitched. Nominees are ineligible until the completion of one full calendar year at his/her current institution and attainment of sophomore athletic eligibility. Transfers, graduate students and two-year college graduates must have completed one full calendar year at the nominating institution to be eligible. Graduate school nominees must have a cumulative GPA of 3.30 or better both as an undergraduate and in graduate school. Except for at-large program, there are no limits in the number of athletes an institution may nominate. In the at-large program, nominations are limited to three per school per gender (a total of three men's at-large candidates and three women's at-large candidates). If an institution participates in both the college and the university divisions, it may nominate a total of three men and three women between the two divisions.
In each program, All-District selections are elected by the CoSIDA membership with the resulting first-team All-District selections advancing to the national ballot for Academic All-America team selections. The national ballot is cast by members of the Academic All-America Committee and the CoSIDA Board of Directors. Each program also recognizes a single athlete for both the University and College Divisions who are referred to as Academic All-America of the Year. Recent winners of this recognition include Florida Gator
Florida Gators football
The Florida Gators football team represents the University of Florida in the sport of American football. The Florida Gators compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision of the National Collegiate Athletics Association and the Eastern Division of the Southeastern Conference...
Tim Tebow
Tim Tebow
Timothy Richard "Tim" Tebow is an American football player who is currently the starting quarterback for the Denver Broncos of the National Football League . He was drafted by the Broncos as the 25th overall pick in the 2010 NFL Draft...
for the University Division of Football in both 2008 and 2009 and Kansas Jayhawk Cole Aldrich
Cole Aldrich
Cole David Aldrich is an American basketball player who is currently playing for the Oklahoma City Thunder in the National Basketball Association . He completed his junior year at the University of Kansas in March 2010. Aldrich was selected as a McDonald's All American in 2006. He attended...
for the University Division of men's basketball in 2010. In addition, there is an annual selection by the College Sports Information Directors of America
College Sports Information Directors of America
College Sports Information Directors of Americaor CoSIDA is the organization that has since 1952 bestowed Academic All-American recognition on male and female athletes in Divisions I, II, and III of the National Collegiate Athletic Association —covering all NCAA championship sports—and NAIA...
and its Academic All-America sponsor of the individual athlete selected as the most outstanding Academic All-America of the 816 annual selections. Since 1996 one winner each has been chosen from both the College and University Divisions. Between 1988 and 1995 one winner was chosen per year.
Team Member of the Year
During the 1987–88 academic year, CoSIDA began selecting one student as the most outstanding team member of the year. Since 1996, two outstanding team members have been selected, one each from the College division and the University division.