The 2004-05 Academic All-America® of the Year honors were announced by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). Football player Alex Smith of the University of Utah received the award in the University Division, and volleyball player Carli Dale of Juniata College was selected for the college division honor.
Smith, now with the San Francisco 49ers after being the number one pick in the 2005 NFL draft, led the Utes to a perfect 12-0 season at quarterback and a No. 4 national ranking in 2004, as Utah became the first school ever from a non-Bowl Championship Series (BCS) conference to play in a BCS bowl (defeating Pittsburgh 35-7 in the Fiesta Bowl). A Heisman Trophy finalist, Smith was named National Player of the Year by Sports Illustrated and The Sporting News and was a first-team All-American.
The Mountain West Conference (MWC) Offensive Player of the Year, Smith completed 214-of-317 passes (67.5 percent) for 2,952 yards and 32 touchdowns with just four interceptions, good for a 176.5 efficiency rating. A six-time MWC Player of the Week, he broke nine school career records at Utah. Academically, the native of La Mesa, Calif., earned his bachelor's degree in economics at Utah in two years with a cumulative grade-point average of 3.74 on a 4.0 scale, then began work on his master's degree in economics in the fall.
Last fall, Dale led Juniata to a 37-3 overall record and the 2004 NCAA Division III national championship as a senior, earning NCAA Tournament MVP honors. A setter who was named AVCA Division III Player of the Year, Dale averaged 13.42 assists per game (fourth in the nation) while adding 1.13 kills, 3.54 digs, and 0.41 aces per game while posting a .413 hitting percentage. She was a two-time Commonwealth Conference Player of the Year and was the first-ever Juniata athlete to earn the Middle Atlantic Corporation (MAC) Scholar-Athlete award.
Dale finished her career ranked second all-time in assists (6,173) and fourth in digs (1,520) at Juniata while leading her team to a 138-19 four-year record. A finalist for the Collegiate Women's Sports Awards Division III Athlete of the Year, Dale was hired as head volleyball coach at Dickinson University following graduation. Academically, the Cochranton, Pa., native posted a 3.84 cumulative grade-point average on a 4.0 scale majoring in accounting.
The Academic All-America of the Year honor, which began in 1987-88, is awarded to the most outstanding student-athlete of the year and is chosen from the student-athletes who have been awarded Team Member of the Year honors. From over 360,000 student-athletes in the nation, just 816 are selected as Academic All-America Team members each year, twenty-four are selected as Team Members of the Year and two are named Academic All-America of the Year.
"With over 10,000 student athletes being nominated for Academic All-America® each year, and considering the number of athletes completing in intercollegiate sports, to reach the epitome of what it means to be a successful student-athlete and be selected as the best of the best is quite an amazing achievement," said Bentley College's Dick Lipe, Academic All-America chair at CoSIDA.
Former recipients of Academic All-America of the Year honors include Rebecca Lobo (1994-95), Peyton Manning (1997-98), Chad Pennington (1999-00), Stacey Dales-Schuman (2001-02) and Emeka Okafor (2003-04) A full list of the previous recipients of the AAA of the Year award follows.
The Academic All-America Teams program honors 816 male and female student-athletes annually who have succeeded at the highest level on the playing field and in the classroom. Individuals are selected through voting by CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America), a 2,000 member organization consisting of sports public relations professionals for colleges and universities in the United States and Canada.
To be eligible, a student-athlete must be a varsity starter or key reserve, maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.20 on a scale of 4.00, have reached sophomore athletic and academic standings at his/her current institution and be nominated by his/her sports information director. Since the program’s inception in 1952, CoSIDA has bestowed Academic All-America honors on more than 14,000 student-athletes in Divisions I, II, III and NAIA covering all NCAA championship sports.
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For more information about the Academic All-America Teams program, please visit www.cosida.com or e-mail rlipe@bentley.edu.
ESPN THE MAGAZINE ACADEMIC ALL-AMERICA®OF THE YEAR RECIPIENTS PREVIOUS WINNERS
(Year Name School Sport)
2004-05 Alex Smith Utah Football, Carli Dale Juniata Volleyball
2003-04 Emeka Okafor Connecticut Basketball, Kristen Shields Whitworth Track & Field
2002-03 Theresa Kulikowski Utah Gymnastics, Ashley Rowatt Kenyon Swimming
2001-02 Stacey Dales-Schuman Oklahoma Basketball, T.J. Hess Widener Football
2000-01 Ruth Riley Notre Dame Basketball, Emily Bloss Emporia State Basketball
1999-00 Chad Pennington Marshall Football, Korey Coon Ill. Wesleyan Basketball
1998-99 Matt Stinchcomb Georgia Football, Kelly Schade Simpson Softball
1997-98 Peyton Manning Tennessee Football, Brad Gray MIT Football
1996-97 Danny Wuerffel Florida Football, Julie Roe Millikin Basketball
1995-96* Todd Fuller North Car. St. Basketball, Chris Palmer St. John's (MN) Football
1994-95 Rebecca Lobo Connecticut Basketball, (tie) Rob Zatechka Nebraska Football
1993-94 Carl Erikson Oberlin Tennis
1992-93 Jim Hansen Colorado Football
1991-92 Tommy Vardell Stanford Football 1990-91 Al Parker Georgia Tennis
1989-90Alec Kessler Georgia Basketball 1988-89 James Martin Penn St. Wrestling
1987-88 Michael Smith Brigham Young Basketball
* From 1988-1995 only one winner was chosen per year. Beginning in 1996 the format was changed to select one winner per year in each division (college and university).