Alabama Athletics Extends its Roll of Academic Excellence as New School Year Gets Underway

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – As The University of Alabama rolls into the 2020-21 academic year Wednesday, the Crimson Tide is fresh off another outstanding year in the classroom, expanding its well-established tradition of scholastic excellence.

Alabama Athletics tallied more than 150 graduates over the past academic year. That total includes an NCAA and World champion, 25 All-Americans and eight Academic All-Americans, as well as 16 master's degrees between winter, spring and summer graduates. The Crimson Tide's latest NCAA Graduation Success Rate was 91, two points higher than the year before.

On a department-wide basis, Alabama's more than 600 student-athletes averaged over a 3.5 grade point average during 2019-20. All 17 programs earned better than a 2.9 GPA with 16 earning better than a 3.0. A total of 11 Tide teams earned over a 3.5 GPA for the year, marking the 10th year in a row that at least five teams have met that standard.

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. The Tide was once again among the national leaders when it comes to Academic All-America honors, totaling 12 during the 2019-20 academic year. That total makes Alabama the only school to earn double-digit honors the last seven 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 Daniel Kober, Allie Surrency and Zane Waddell along with tennis player Alba Cortina Pou all earned a place on the at-large teams. In the fall, Nealy Martin and Alex Plavin earned spots on the soccer list. In the spring, Bailey Hemphill, Kaylee Tow and Krystal Goodman earned the honor in softball and Vincent Kiprop, Daija Lampkin and Samantha Zelden rounded out the Tide's total when they earned places on the track and field/cross country teams. It was the third Academic All-America honor for Hemphill, the second for Lampkin and Tow and the first for the remaining nine.

With its 2019-20 tally, Alabama has earned Academic All-America honors a Division I-best 156 times since 2000 and 78 times over the past seven years. The Tide's seven-year total is two better than second-place Stanford over that span and more than 20 ahead of third-place Minnesota.

Overall, Alabama leads the Southeastern Conference with a total of 192 Academic All-American honors and is ranked fifth among NCAA Division I schools.

Other Alabama CoSIDA Academic All-America Highlights

The Alabama men's swimming and diving program has been particularly prolific in terms of Academic All-America honors over the past six years, with eight swimmers earning 16 honors. That total is nearly double what any other school has put on the at-large team over that span for all sports combined.
Overall, 18 members of the men's and women's swimming and diving program have earned 29 Academic All-America certificates.
Alabama softball players have earned 29 Academic All-America awards over the Tide's 24-year softball history, including at least one award winner every year since 2008.
Kiprop, Lampkin and Zelden marked a program best three honors in a single year for track and field/cross country.
This season also marked the 11th year in a row that at least one member of the track & field/cross country program has earned Academic All-American recognition. Overall, 15 members of the program have earned Academic All-America recognition 23 times.
Cortina Pou is the ninth member of the women's tennis team to earn Academic All-America, pushing the program's total to 12
Martin and Plavin are the eighth and ninth UA soccer players to earn Academic All-America distinction, with their honors bumping the program's total to 11.
In addition to the Tide's 12 Academic All-Americans, five additional UA student-athletes earned Academic All-District recognition: Landon Dickerson (football), Jordan Lewis (women's basketball), Alexey Nesterov (at-large/tennis), Kolby Robinson (baseball) and Jedrick Wills Jr. (football).

Hemphill went on to earn an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship in the summer of 2020, marking the 19th year in a row that a member of the Crimson Tide has earned at least one of the prestigious scholarships.

More NCAA Elite 90 Award Highlights

A total of 10 different athletes have earned UA's 16 honors. Alabama's total ranks second all time, just behind Stanford.
Tow's Elite 90 honor was the first for UA since gymnast Lauren Beers earned her third in a row in 2016.
Tow is the first UA softball player to earn the NCAA Elite 90 Award.
Alabama gymnastics leads the way as the only program in any sport to earn seven consecutive NCAA Elite 90 Awards.

On a conference level, Hemphill and Waddell earned SEC Postgraduate Scholarships and were finalists for the H. Boyd McWhorter Southeastern Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Additionally, Waddell was voted the SEC Swimming and Diving Scholar-Athlete of the Year by the league's coaches. It marked fifth year in a row that the Alabama men's team has received the honor.

Overall, Alabama student-athletes were voted the SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year for their respective sports a conference-record eight times during the 2019-20 academic year. The Tide's honorees included Waddell (men's swimming and diving), Shea Mahoney (gymnastics), Cortina Pou (women's tennis), Edson Ortiz (men's tennis), Lewis (women's basketball), Kiprop (men's cross country), Lampkin (women's indoor track and field) and Martin (soccer).

Crimson Tide student-athletes from 13 different teams have earned SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year for their respective sports a conference-best 60 times since the honor's inception in 2003, tallying more than a dozen better than the next closest school.

Alabama was also prolific when it came to the SEC Academic Honor Roll, coming away with the accolade 385 times during the 2019-20 academic year. The Crimson Tide had 78, 60 and 127 student-athletes named to the SEC Fall, Winter and Spring Academic Honor Rolls, respectively, and 120 named to the First-Year Academic Honor Roll.

The Tide'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 2019 squad is no exception as Alabama entered bowl season with 22 players on its roster who already had degrees in hand heading into the Citrus Bowl with Michigan.

Since 2013, Alabama has seen 173 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 24 players earn 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.

University of Alabama Athletics