For the third consecutive academic year, CoSIDA has guest columns running in each issue of NACDA's
Athletics Administration Magazine. Beginning with the 2009-10 academic year and with its new partnership with NACDA at that time, the CoSIDA leadership was invited to contribute to each issue.
Each
Athletics Administration issue is sent to over 10,000 university and athletics administrators, with CoSIDA's voice, thoughts and expertise shared with these key constituents. The magazine is published each October, November, December, February, March, April, June and August.
The November 2011 column (below) was written by
Tom Di Camillo, CoSIDA’s President for 2011-12. Di Camillo serves as the Pac West Conference Assistant Commissioner/Media Relations and is the Central Arizona College Director of Media & Community Events. Di Camillo also wrote the October column.
See the CoSIDA Corner archives HERE.
Our signature program- A look at the expanded Capital One Academic All-America® program and Academic All-America Hall of Fame
by Tom Di Camillo, 2011-12 CoSIDA President
For more than half a century, the hallmark of CoSIDA has been its nationally recognized signature program — the Academic All-America® (AAA) program.
Developed by members of CoSIDA, it’s the most prestigious and recognizable program that honors collegiate scholar-athletes for their outstanding achievement in the classroom as well as in the arena of competition. Since its inception in 1952, the AAA® program has honored thousands of deserving student-athletes from numerous sports across all divisions. It has evolved across the decades and today honors elite scholar-athletes in a dozen sports. More than 20,000 student-athletes have been honored in the program’s near 60-year history.
CoSIDA also created the Academic All-America®Hall of Fame in 1988 recognizing Academic All-Americas who have achieved lifetime success in their professional careers and are committed to philanthropic causes in their communities.
Prior to the 2011-12 academic year, approximately 1,950 of the 12,000 student-athletes nominated annually received First-Team Academic All-District honors and just 820 gained prestigious Academic All-America® honors — including 288 who were selected first-team. This year, CoSIDA is proud to announce that the AAA® program has doubled in size and scope.
In January 2011, CoSIDA welcomed Capital One as the title sponsor of its Academic All-America® and its Academic All-America® Hall of Fame entities. The federally trademarked programs are officially known as the Capital One Academic All-America® program and the Capital One Academic All-America® Hall of Fame.
Together, CoSIDA and Capital One will enhance the visibility of the Academic All-America® program like never before, with Capital One’s commitment to the program and scholar-athletes advancing the program’s national profile. (While many organizations and coaching associations produce outstanding programs to recognize deserving student-athletes for academic and athletics success, only CoSIDA is permitted to use the term Academic All-America®, Academic All-America® or Academic All-America Hall of Fame® under trademark law.)
Through CoSIDA, scholar-athletes are honored in the sports of men’s and women’s soccer, and football and women’s volleyball in the fall, men’s and women’s basketball in the winter, and baseball and softball in the spring.
The spring also features a men’s and women’s track and field/cross country program as well as an at-large team that is comprised of NCAA-sponsored sports including: women’s bowling, women’s crew, men’s and women’s fencing, women’s field hockey, men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s gymnastics, men’s and women’s ice hockey, men’s and women’s lacrosse, men’s and women’s rifle, men’s and women’s skiing, men’s and women’s swimming, men’s and women’s tennis, men’s volleyball, men’s and women’s water polo, and men’s wrestling.
The Academic All-America Hall of Fame® that was initiated in 1988 and today boasts a myriad of successful Academic All-America® recipients, including a sizeable contingent of highly recognizable Olympic and professional athletes such as Steve Young, Bernie Kosar, Joe Theisman, Cris Collinsworth, Joe Girardi, Danny Ainge, Rebecca Lobo, Bill Walton, Anita DeFrantz, Lynette
Woodard and Karch Kiraly - to name just a few.
The class of 2011 alone featured former NFL standout Peter Metzelaars (Wabash ’82), and four former standout scholar-athletes who received their doctorate degrees in various fields - Dr. Megan Neyer (Florida ’86), Dr. Randal Pinkett (Rutgers ’94), Dr. Julie Bremner Romias (UCLA ’94) and Dr. Carol Lally Shields (Notre Dame ’79).
As CoSIDA enters the 2011-12 Academic All-America® year, change is again on the proverbial horizon that will increase accessibility for all student-athletes across all levels of competition,
especially the Division II, Division III, NAIA, Canadian and two-year institutions.
In addition to Capital One’s partnership as title sponsor of our signature program, this year the NCAA Division II and III leadership will provide significant funding to allow the expansion of the Academic All-America® program. We sincerely thank the DII and DIII leadership for their support.
For much of its history, the Academic All-America® program has been divided into two categories - a University Division featuring all Division I programs, and a College Division featuring Divisions II and III, the NAIA, Canadian and two-year colleges/universities. Even making All-District teams for deserving scholar-athletes was a challenge in the two-division setup.
That will drastically change this year as the program doubles in scope. Division II and III institutions will have their own separate Academic All-America® programs, while NAIA, two-year and Canadian institutions will be grouped together. For institutions in the NAIA and in Canada - and especially two-year institutions who have had limited access to the program across the years - this is a boon for getting their recognition for their top scholar-athletes.
How does the process work? Simple. Student-athletes are nominated by current CoSIDA members for the awards. Voting for Academic All-District (first-, second- and possible third-team members) is performed by current CoSIDA members. Those who attain First-Team All-District status move onto the national Academic All-America® ballot. These national awards (first-, second-, third-team for each sport) are voted upon by AAA® Committee members and CoSIDA leaders and board members. Annually, the process begins in early October when CoSIDA members nominate candidates for football, men’s and women’s soccer, and women’s volleyball.
It truly is an elite program. To be nominated, a student-athlete must be a starter or important reserve with at least a 3.30 cumulative GPA (on a 4.0 scale) at his/her current institution.
Nominated athletes must have participated in at least 50 percent of the team’s games (where applicable). In baseball and softball, pitchers must have at least 10.0 innings pitched. Student-athletes must complete one full calendar year at their current institution and have reached sophomore athletics eligibility. In the cases of transfers, graduate students and two-year college graduates, the student-athlete must complete one full calendar year at the nominating institution to be eligible. Nominees in graduate school must have a cumulative GPA of 3.30 or better, both as an undergrad and in grad school. With the exception of the at-large program, there are no limits in the number of athletes an institution may nominate.
As CoSIDA expands its Capital One Academic All-America® program in 2011-12, the opportunity to recognize, honor and publicize the academic and athletic achievements of our student-athletes has never been greater.
We encourage everyone to follow and support the Capital One Academic All-America® program at all campus and conference levels. More information can be found at
http://cosida.com/Awards/allamerica.aspx.