Crimson Column presented by Mercedes-Benz
6/29/2017 4:14:00 PM | General
2016-17 Season in the Books
The time has come for us to turn the page on the 2016-17 chapter and look forward to what is in store for 2017-18. There are so many accomplishments for us to celebrate following another successful season of Alabama Athletics, many of which are highlighted below.
The passion for The University of Alabama is second to none, and I thank and applaud each of you for your support. The culture and tradition of the Crimson Tide is certainly very special, and I am proud to now be a part of that as your Director of Athletics. I would like to, again, thank Coach Bill Battle for everything over the last several months, as well as all of our coaches and staff that work tirelessly in order for us to live up to and carry out our mission.
With the end of June upon us, this brings a close to our season of the Crimson Column. We will break for the next few weeks and resume in August, prior to the new academic and athletic year. I hope you all are able to enjoy some rest and relaxation over the next few months and look forward to cheering on the Tide with you in the new year, beginning with soccer on August 10.
Roll Tide!
Academic Success
In recent weeks, we have been flooded with tremendous news on the academic front, earning honor after honor. Much of this news has placed us at the forefront of the conference and national ranks. When Alex Gholston was named the College Sports Information Director's Women's Track and Field Academic All-America First Team for the second year in a row in mid-June, she capped another extraordinary showing for The University of Alabama when it comes to one of the nation's premiere academic honors. Alex is the 10th Alabama student-athlete to earn Academic All-America honors this year, which marks the fourth year in a row that we have posted double digits when it comes to this accolade. We led the nation in first-team honors and were one of two Division I schools to earn 10 or more overall honors this season.
We also lead NCAA Division I in Winter NCAA Postgraduate Scholarships with three after swimmers Anton McKee and Connor Oslin and gymnast Keely McNeer all earned the prestigious honor this week. Earlier this week we also announced that Krystal Rivers, who earned a Fall NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship earlier this year, is our nominee for the NCAA Woman of the Year.
On top of these national honors, your Crimson Tide student-athletes achieved a combined GPA of 3.253 and led the Southeastern Conference in both Spring Academic Honor Roll and First Year Academic Honor Roll accolades, with 127 and 102, respectively.
Academics are priority one at The University of Alabama and this latest rush of good news certainly bears that out.
For more on our latest academics successes, follow the links below.
- Alabama Athletics Leads the Nation in First Team CoSIDA Academic All-Americans
- Alabama Swimming Duo Earns NCAA Postgraduate Scholarships
- Alabama Gymnast Keely McNeer Earns NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship
- Alabama Volleyball's Krystal Rivers is an NCAA Woman of the Year Nominee
- Alabama Athletics Leads SEC with 127 Student-Athletes on the Spring Academic Honor Roll
- Alabama Athletics Leads SEC with 102 Student-Athletes on the First Year Academic Honor Roll
Athletics Success
Over the past decade, Alabama has been on an unprecedented run in collegiate athletics, winning 10 national team championships in five different sports in addition to 22 Southeastern Conference team titles during that span. In 2016-17, the Crimson Tide added two individual national champions in Katie Bailey (gymnastics) and Lakan Taylor (track and field). Our top women's tennis tandem of Erin Routliffe and Maddie Pothoff advanced to the NCAA doubles national championship, which was Routliffe's third appearance in the final match.
Alabama student-athletes also captured nine individual SEC titles from Quanesha Burks (track and field), Alfred Chelanga (track and field), Daniel Haugh (track and field), Anton McKee (swimming and diving), Connor Oslin (swimming and diving), Christopher Reid (swimming and diving) Jereem Richards (track and field), Kiana Winston (gymnastics) and Bailey.
Our football team became the only program in the nation to advance to the College Football Playoff in each of its first three seasons, coming off the Tide's 26th SEC title with a 54-16 victory over Florida. With the team success came several individual national honors won by Jonathan Allen (Bronko Nagurski Award, Chuck Bednarik Award, Ted Hendricks Award), Reuben Foster (Butkus Award) and Cam Robinson (Outland Trophy).
Overall, nine of our teams had top-20 finishes in their respective sports, which is a fantastic achievement. Football finished No. 2, while our women's track and field team secured a third-place finish at the indoor championships, which is its highest mark since 1994. The men's track and field team came in at eighth at the indoor championships and 10th at the outdoor championships for their first pair of top-10 finishes since 2001. Gymnastics advanced to its NCAA-best 23rd Super Six, while men's swimming and diving earned its third-consecutive top-10 finish at the NCAA championships. Our women's and men's golf teams closed out their NCAA championship appearances with 14th and 17th-place finishes, respectively, and softball advanced to its 13th-straight NCAA super regional.
Both of our basketball teams made national postseason appearances with our women's team advancing to the quarterfinals of the WNIT for the first time since 2002.
I have no doubt the 2017-18 season will bring along even more academic and athletic success, and I look forward to celebrating those with our coaches, student-athletes, staff and fans.
University Spotlight
It has been another incredible year at The University of Alabama, and if you have not already, I encourage each of you to take a look at this year in review video. This compilation gives you a glimpse at many of the highlights and incredible accomplishments achieved throughout the 2016-17 academic year.
#RollTideFriday
Our #RollTideFriday campaign has been extremely successful since its implementation, reaching close to eight million people! We thank everyone for participating and truly enjoy seeing all of your posts.
This week, our photos feature Jackson Sparks showing us his Alabama gear while on vacation in Hanauma Bay, Hawaii and T.J. Nance in Parris Island, South Carolina.
Jackson Sparks showing us his Alabama gear while on vacation in Hanauma Bay
T.J. Nance in Parris Island, South Carolina
We encourage you to continue taking part in #RollTideFriday throughout the summer. Don't forget, you can always tweet your photos to me as well at @Greg_Byrne. Check out our #RollTideFriday Fan Hub to see all the places people are sporting the Alabama logo.
