Alabama Athletics Celebrates Academic Excellence as New School Year Gets Underway
8/20/2021 1:18:00 PM | General
Crimson Tide student-athletes earned over 150 degrees during the last academic year as well as a school-record 18 Academic All-America honors
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – As The University of Alabama rolls into the 2021-22 academic year this week, the Crimson Tide is fresh off one of the best years in school history both athletically and academically, expanding its well-established tradition of overall excellence.
Alabama Athletics tallied more than 150 graduates over the past academic year. That total includes NCAA and Southeastern Conference champions, All-Americans and Academic All-Americans, as well as 42 master's degrees between winter, spring and summer graduates.
Academically, UA's more than 600 student-athletes averaged over a 3.3 grade point average during 2020-21. All 17 programs earned better than a 2.8 GPA with 15 earning better than a 3.0. A total of 10 Tide teams earned over a 3.5 GPA for the year, marking the 11th 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 scholastic prowess been on better display as when it comes to the CoSIDA Academic All-America program.
Mac Jones was indicative of Alabama's athletic and academic success in 2020-21. The quarterback of Alabama's 2020 CFP National and SEC Championship squad and a first-round pick by the New England Patriots, he was named the CoSIDA Academic All-American of the Year, an honor that recognizes the top scholar-athlete in all of NCAA Division I regardless of sport or gender.
Jones is the fourth Crimson Tide student-athlete to earn the prestigious accolade, giving Alabama the most honorees in the award's history, joining Brooke Pancake (women's golf/2012), Barrett Jones (football/2013) and Kim Jacob (gymnastics/2014).
Jones and Bailey Hemphill (softball) both earned CoSIDA Academic All-American of the Year honors for their respective sports, bumping the Tide's total to 15 for the sport honors. It was the second Softball Academic All-American of the Year honor for Hemphill and the Tide's fourth in softball over the past seven years.
In addition to its "of the Year" honors, the Tide was once again among the national leaders when it comes to Academic All-Americans, totaling a school-record 18 during the 2020-21 academic year, making Alabama the only school to earn double-digit honors the last eight years in a row.
Alabama led the nation in First Team Academic All-America honors in 2020-21 with 13, four more than second-place Stanford. The Crimson Tide was also No. 1 nationally with 11 women earning Academic All-America recognition.
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 Cade Auerbach, Morgan Liberto, Derek Maas and Nicholas Perera, as well as women's tennis player Alba Cortina Pou and rower Izzy Gonzales all earned a place on the at-large teams. In the fall, Jones and Landon Dickerson made the football list, while Montana Fouts, Hemphill, Alexis Mack and Kaylee Tow all earned a spot on the softball list after another SEC title and Women's College World Series appearance. Mercy Chelangat, Tamara Clark, Vincent Kiprop, Daija Lampkin, Jake Spotswood and Samantha Zelden rounded out the Tide's total when they earned places on the track and field/cross country teams.
It was the fourth Academic All-America honor for Hemphill, the third for Lampkin and Tow, the second for Cortina Pou, Kiprop and Zelden and the first for the remaining 12.
With its 2020-21 tally, the Tide has earned Academic All-America honors 126 times since 2010. Alabama and Stanford rank in the top-two over that span, with both schools tallying more than 40 honors better than the next closest school.
Overall, Alabama leads the Southeastern Conference with 210 Academic All-American honors, tallying more than 50 honors better than the next SEC school, and ranking fifth among NCAA Division I schools.
Other Alabama CoSIDA Academic All-America Highlights
- Alabama is No. 1 all-time when it comes to softball Academic All-America honors with 33 over the Tide's 25-year softball history, including at least one award winner every year since 2008.
- The Alabama men's swimming and diving program has been particularly prolific in terms of Academic All-America honors over the past seven years, with 12 swimmers earning 20 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, 22 members of the men's and women's swimming and diving program have earned 33 Academic All-America certificates.
- Chelangat, Clark, Kiprop, Lampkin, Spotswood and Zelden tallied a program-best six honors in a single year for track and field/cross country, doubling the previous mark.
- This season also marked the 12th year in a row that at least one member of the track & field/cross country program has earned Academic All-American recognition. Overall, 18 members of the program have combined for 29 accolades.
- Cortina Pou is the ninth member of the women's tennis team to earn Academic All-America, pushing the program's total to 13
- In addition to the Tide's 18 Academic All-Americans, five additional UA student-athletes earned Academic All-District recognition:Â Elissa Brown (softball), Chase Lee (baseball), Jordan Lewis (women's basketball), Tanesha Lucoe (at-large/swimming & diving) and Madelyn St. Germain (volleyball)
Cortina Pou went on to earn an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship in the summer of 2021, marking the 20th year in a row that a member of the Crimson Tide has earned at least one of the prestigious scholarships.
More NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship Highlights
- Overall, Alabama students have been awarded 67 NCAA Postgraduate Scholarships since football's Steve Davis earned the Tide's first in 1968.
- After a school-record seven student-athletes earned NCAA Postgraduate Scholarships in 2014, Alabama has added 14 more over the last seven years, including Cortina Pou. The Tide now has a 10-year total of 34 NCAA Postgraduate Scholarships.
- Cortina Pou is the fifth UA women's tennis player to earn the honor, joining Taylor Lindsey (2012), Antonia Foshee (2013), Mary Anne Daines (2014) and Emily Zabor (2015).
- Alabama student-athletes have earned at least one NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship each of the last 20 years in a row, dating back to 2002. That stretch included 11-consecutive years with multiple scholarship winners from 2008-18.
On a conference level, Sam DiSette and Cortina Pou earned SEC Postgraduate Scholarships and were finalists for the H. Boyd McWhorter Southeastern Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Additionally, Jones and Edson Ortiz were honored as SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year for football and men's tennis, respectively. It was the second honor for Ortiz.
Alabama student-athletes have been voted the SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year for their respective sports a conference-record 62 times spanning 13 different teams since the honor's inception in 2003, tallying more than a dozen better than the next closest school. That total includes a league-record eight honorees during the 2019-20 academic year.
Alabama was also prolific when it came to the SEC Academic Honor Roll, coming away with the accolade 398 times during the 2020-21 academic year. The Crimson Tide had 98, 66 and 151 student-athletes named to the SEC Fall, Winter and Spring Academic Honor Rolls, respectively, and 83 named to the First-Year Academic Honor Roll.
The Tide's continual success on the football field over the past dozen years has coincided with its success in the classroom. The Tide's last six national title teams (2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2020) included 139 players who had earned their degrees prior to game time. The 2020 squad was no exception as Alabama led the nation in terms of graduates on its roster with 25 entering bowl season.
Since 2013, Alabama has seen 208 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 27 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.
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