Alabama Athletics Continues Strong Classroom Showing as New School Year Begins
8/21/2018 5:18:00 PM | General, Men's Basketball, Men's Golf, Women's Golf, Gymnastics, Soccer, Women's Tennis, Swimming & Diving, Track & Field, Cross Country
Alabama’s approximately 600 student-athletes earned over a 3.27 grade point average during the 2017-18 academic year
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – As The University of Alabama begins the 2018-19 academic year on Wednesday, the Crimson Tide athletics department finds itself in the midst of an extraordinary run of success in the classroom that was particularly strong during the 2017-18 academic year, further enhancing the Crimson Tide's well-established tradition of scholastic excellence.
On a department-wide basis, Alabama's approximately 600 student-athletes earned over a 3.27 grade point average. All 17 programs earned better than a 2.75 GPA with 16 earning better than a 3.0. A total of seven Tide teams earned over a 3.5 GPA in 2017-18, marking the eighth year in a row that at least five teams have met that standard.
More than 175 student-athletes earned their degrees during the 2017-18 academic year, including the winter, spring and summer graduations. The latest numbers reveal that Alabama graduates 71 percent of its student-athletes while the general student population graduates at a rate of 67 percent.
As impressive as those numbers are, perhaps nowhere has Alabama Athletics' continued academic prowess been on better display than when it comes to the CoSIDA Academic All-America program.
Alabama once again led the nation in Academic All-America honors, totaling 11 during the 2017-18 academic year. The Crimson Tide's total makes Alabama the only school to earn double-digit accolades the last five years in a row.
There are 12 Academic All-America teams administered by the College Sports Information Directors of America, including men's and women's soccer, football, volleyball, men's and women's basketball, baseball, softball, men's and women's track and field/cross country, as well as the men's and women's at-large teams, which spans 12 and 14 sports, respectively.
Swimmers Laurent Bams, Robert Howard, Luke Kaliszak and Temarie Tomley along with gymnast Mackenzie Brannan, tennis player Andie Daniell and golfer Kristen Gillman all earned a place on the at-large teams. It was Brannan's third Academic All-America honor and second for Kaliszak.
In the fall of 2017, Emma Welch took a spot on the soccer list while Leah Lawrence was recognized for volleyball. In the spring of 2018, Bailey Hemphill received the honor in softball and Josh Short rounded out the Tide's total when he earned a place on the track and field/cross country team.
In addition to the Tide's 11 Academic All-Americans over the past year, six additional UA student-athletes earned Academic All-District recognition: Rachel Bobo (softball), Connor Ferrentino (men's track and field/cross country), Nicole Gardner (women's track and field/cross country), Keith Holcombe (football), Jonah Williams (football) and Braxton Young (at-large/swimming and diving).
After a school-record seven student-athletes earned NCAA Postgraduate Scholarships in 2014, Alabama has added 11 more over the last four years, including two in 2017-18 with Brannan and Kaliszak receiving the prestigious scholarship.
On a conference level, Brannan and Kaliszak both earned SEC Postgraduate Scholarships and were finalists for the SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Additionally, Kaliszak was voted the SEC Swimming and Diving Scholar-Athlete of the Year by the league's coaches.
Alabama was also prolific when it came to the SEC Academic Honor Roll, coming away with the accolade 391 times during the 2017-18 academic year. The Crimson Tide had 106, 57 and 136 student-athletes named to the SEC Fall, Winter and Spring Academic Honor Rolls, respectively, and 92 named to the First-Year Academic Honor Roll.
Alabama's success on the football field over the past decade has coincided with its success in the classroom. The Tide's last five national title teams (2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017) included 114 players who had earned their degrees prior to the championship game. The 2017 squad featured 12 players who already had degrees in hand going into the season opener with Florida State. An additional 13 Tide players graduated in December of 2017, giving UA 25 graduates on its Sugar Bowl and CFP Championship Game rosters.
Alabama also received the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Academic Achievement Award in 2017 after recording a 100-percent graduation rate for members of its 2010 freshman football class. The Academic Achievement Award is presented annually to the school or schools with the highest score in the NCAA Graduation Success Rate (GSR) and a federal graduation rate of 75 percent or higher.
Additional examples of Alabama's ongoing academic excellence include:
- With five impressive Academic All-America classes in a row, Alabama has made a big jump in the national rankings over that span, moving from 13th all-time in NCAA Division I following the 2012-13 academic year to fifth two years later.
- Following the 2017-18 school year, Alabama leads the Southeastern Conference with a total of 170 Academic All-America accolades and remains fifth among NCAA Division I schools.
- Alabama student-athletes have come away with Academic All-America honors a Division I-best 88 times since 2009-10 and 56 times over the last five years. The Tide's five-year total is 11 better than second-place Stanford over that span.
- Alabama has also made a significant jump in the rankings when it comes to honors since 2000, jumping Notre Dame in 2017-18 to move up to second place with 134.
- In the spring of 2018, Alabama became the first school to have a combined seven student-athletes earn a place on the at-large team in the same year. It also marked the second time that the Tide has had the maximum number of student-athletes, four, on the women's at-large team.
- Alabama was the first school to put four on the women's (2014) and men's (2017) at-large teams and is now the first to put four on the women's team twice (2014 and 2018).Â
- The Alabama men's swimming and diving program has been particularly prolific over the past four years, with six swimmers earning 12 honors. That total is nearly double what any other school has put on the men's at-large team over that span for all sports combined.
- Alabama softball players have earned 24 Academic All-America awards over the Tide's 22-year history, including at least one award winner every year since 2008.
- UA gymnasts have garnered Academic All-America recognition 23 times with Mackenzie Brannan becoming the third Alabama gymnast to garner three honors in a career with her 2018 accolade. Tide gymnasts have earned Academic All-America honors 10 of the past 11 years and the past six years in a row.
- Leah Lawrence's honors marked the fourth season in a row that at least one Tide volleyball player has received the honor.
- Emma Welch is the seventh UA soccer player to be named Academic All-America, with her honor becoming the Tide's eighth in program history.
- Josh Short's honor marks the ninth year in a row that at least one member of the track & field/cross country program has earned Academic All-American recognition. Overall, 11 members of the program have received Academic All-America recognition 18 times.
- Alabama students have been awarded 64 NCAA Postgraduate Scholarships since football's Steve Davis earned the Tide's first in 1968, with nearly half that total (31) coming over the last seven years.
- Alabama student-athletes have now earned at least one NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship the last 17 years in a row, dating back to 2002. That stretch includes 11 consecutive years with multiple scholarship winners.
- Luke Kaliszak's 2018 SEC Swimming and Diving Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors marks the third year in a row that the Alabama men's team has received the honor. Alabama student-athletes from 12 different sports have earned this award 49 times since its inception in 2003, led by women's tennis' eight.
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