Academic Champions….Again!
Belmont University has been awarded the 2015-16 Ohio Valley Conference Institutional Academic Achievement Award, the league office announced Friday. The award is presented annually to the member institution with the greatest percentage of its eligible student-athletes that earn a 3.25 grade-point average or higher for that academic year.
This past year, nearly 66 percent of eligible Belmont student-athletes posted a 3.25 grade-point average or higher. It marks the fourth-straight crown for Belmont who joined the OVC prior to the 2012-13 season. BU has now claimed a conference academic achievement award 13 of the last 15 academic years, including nine of its 11 years of membership in the Atlantic Sun Conference.
In addition to the Institutional Academic Achievement Award, the OVC also announced the recipients of 16 conference Team Academic Achievement Awards, which are presented annually in each conference-sponsored sport to the member institution’s team with the greatest percentage of its eligible student-athletes who achieved a 3.25 grade point average or higher. Belmont claimed two awards with men’s basketball and women’s basketball receiving honors.
Notably, women’s soccer was honored by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) for a second consecutive year by posting the highest team GPA among all NCAA Division I programs, sporting a 3.83 team mark for the latest accounting period.
Belmont University had 139 student-athletes in total named academic all-conference, including 10 student-athletes from men’s soccer (honored as part of the Horizon League Academic Honor Roll).
Fourteen teams earned All-Academic honors from their respective sport governing bodies as well as six athletic teams (men’s basketball, baseball, men’s golf, softball, women’s golf, and women’s track & field) garnered 2016 Academic Progress Rate (APR) Honor Roll distinction.