Alabama Athletics Celebrates Continued Classroom Excellence as New Academic Year Gets Underway
8/20/2019 5:50:00 PM | General
The Crimson Tide’s approximately 600 student-athletes earned over a 3.25 grade point average during the 2018-19 academic year
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – As The University of Alabama gets the 2019-20 academic year underway Wednesday, the Crimson Tide athletics department finds itself coming off another extraordinary year in the classroom, further enhancing its well-established tradition of scholastic excellence.
On a department-wide basis, Alabama's more than 600 student-athletes averaged over a 3.25 grade point average during 2018-19. All 17 programs earned better than a 2.7 GPA with 15 earning better than a 3.0. A total of seven Tide teams earned over a 3.5 GPA in 2018-19, marking the ninth year in a row that at least five teams have met that standard.
Alabama Athletics also tallied more than 125 graduates including five NCAA Champions and 27 All-Americans over the past year. That total included 20 master's degrees between winter, spring and summer graduates. The latest numbers reveal that Alabama graduates 75 percent of its student-athletes while the general student population graduates at a rate of 72 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 was once again among the national leaders when it comes to Academic All-America honors, totaling 10 during the 2018-19 academic year. That total makes Alabama the only school to earn double-digit honors the last six 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 and Robert Howard along with rower Raien Emery and tennis player Andie Daniell all earned a place on the at-large teams.
In the fall, Emma Welch took a spot on the soccer list while Keaton Anderson was recognized for football. In the spring, Bailey Hemphill and Kaylee Tow received the honor in softball and Connor Ferrentino and Daija Lampkin rounded out the Tide's total, earning spots on the track and field/cross country team.
It was the second honor for Bams, Daniell, Hemphill, Howard and Welch.
The Tide's 2018-19 Academic All-Americans were led by Bams and Hemphill, who were named the CoSIDA Academic All-American of the Year for the at-large and softball contingents, respectively. With their recognition, Alabama student-athletes have earned Academic All-American of the Year honors 12 times in the last 12 years and 13 times overall.
The Alabama men's swimming and diving program has been particularly prolific over the past five years, with six swimmers earning 14 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 26 Academic All-America awards over the Tide's 23-year history, including at least one award winner every year since 2008.
Welch is the seventh UA soccer player to be named Academic All-America, with her honor becoming the ninth in program history.
Ferrentino's and Lampkin's honors mark the 10th year in a row that at least one member of the track & field/cross country program has earned Academic All-American recognition. Overall, 13 members of the program have received Academic All-America recognition 20 times.
In addition to the Tide's 10 Academic All-Americans, six additional UA student-athletes earned Academic All-District recognition: Reagan Dykes (softball), Hale Hentges (football), Herbert Jones (men's basketball), Nealy Martin (soccer), Alex Plavin (soccer) and Jedrick Wills Jr. (football).
With six huge 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 2018-19 school year, Alabama leads the Southeastern Conference with a total of 180 Academic All-America accolades and is ranked fifth among NCAA Division I schools.
Alabama student-athletes have come away with Academic All-America honors a Division I-best 98 times since 2009-10 and 66 times since 2013-14. The Tide's six-year total is five 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 144.
The Crimson Tide also added to its NCAA Elite 90 Award tally in 2019, with Tow becoming the first UA softball player to earn the prestigious honor that recognizes the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average among the championship field for each of the NCAA's 90 men's and women's championships across its three divisions.
Tow earned UA's 16th NCAA Elite 90 honor since the award's inception in 2010 and first since gymnast Lauren Beers earned her third in a row in 2016. At total of 10 different athletes have earned UA's 16 honors. Alabama's total ranks second all time, just behind Stanford's 18.
Alabama also bettered its NCAA Top 10 Award total when swimmer Luke Kaliszak was honored at the NCAA Honors and Delegates Celebration in January of 2019. The annual honor recognizes the top 10 student-athletes who have completed their athletic eligibility, regardless of sport, division or gender, for their success in competition, in the classroom and in the community. The 15th Alabama student-athlete to receive the prestigious honor, Kaliszak's selection marks the eighth time in 10 years an Alabama student-athlete has received the award.
After a school-record seven student-athletes earned NCAA Postgraduate Scholarships in 2014, Alabama has added 12 more over the last five years, including Welch in 2018-19. The Tide now has an eight-year total of 32 NCAA Postgraduate Scholarships. Alabama student-athletes have earned at least one NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship the last 18 years in a row, dating back to 2002. That stretch included 11-consecutive years with multiple scholarship winners from 2008-18. Overall, Alabama students have been awarded 65 NCAA Postgraduate Scholarships since football's Steve Davis earned the Tide's first in 1968.
On a conference level, Howard and Welch both earned SEC Postgraduate Scholarships and were finalists for the SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Additionally, Howard was voted the SEC Swimming and Diving Scholar-Athlete of the Year by the league's coaches. It marked the fourth year in a row that the Alabama men's team has received the honor. Hentges was voted the SEC Football Scholar-Athlete of the Year, while Welch earned the honor for soccer. Alabama student-athletes from 12 different sports have earned this award 52 times since its inception in 2003.
Alabama was also prolific when it came to the SEC Academic Honor Roll, coming away with the accolade 361 times during the 2018-19 academic year. The Crimson Tide had 90, 66 and 126 student-athletes named to the SEC Fall, Winter and Spring Academic Honor Rolls, respectively, and 79 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 game time. The 2018 squad entered the campaign with 12 players that had degrees in hand going into the season, which tied for eighth nationally and first in the Southeastern Conference. An additional 10 Tide players graduated in December of 2018, giving UA 22 graduates on its Orange Bowl and CFP Championship Game rosters.
Since 2013, Alabama football has seen 150 degrees earned (graduate and undergraduate) by players who were still suiting up for the Crimson Tide after having graduated. Since the 2010 season, Alabama has seen an impressive 23 players garner a master's degree before stepping foot on the field for the final time.
Crimson Tide student-athletes receiving their degrees while still competing has become such a common occurrence, that the department developed a graduation insignia to wear on their uniform during competition. That initiative went conference-wide during the 2017-18 academic year.
