Full NACDA Release


CLEVELAND - The Division 2 Athletics Directors Association (D2 ADA) announced the 2018-19 recipients of the D2 ADA Academic Achievement Awards on Monday afternoon.

The Academic Achievement Awards, in its 12th year, is a program that recognizes the academic accomplishments of student-athletes at the Division II level. 
 
The Great Midwest Athletic Conference had a total of 522 student-athletes submitted from six member institutions.

In total, there were 11,660 student-athletes from 185 institutions being recognized for the 2018-19 Academic Achievement Awards. This set the record for the most participation from institutions and the largest number of student-athletes being nominated.
 
This year, the association has the most student-athletes being honored from the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC), with 975, closely followed by the Northeast-10 Conference (NE10) with 974 and the Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) with 791. 

"I am very excited to see the highest number of student-athletes get recognized for their academic achievements this past year," said D2 ADA President Chris Ratcliff, director of athletics at Rogers State University. " The number of institutions recognizing their student-athletes' academic achievements continues to rise.  As a board, this is perhaps one of our biggest initiatives.  We see the value of acknowledging academic achievements.  This a way for our member institutions, through D2 ADA, to recognize our student-athletes." 

Independently, the Great Midwest’s University of Findlay moved up to lead the pack this year with 211 honorees, followed by the GLVC's University of Indianapolis with 163 award winners. Rounding out the top three finishers among institutions is a tie with Tiffin University, another league member, with 149 recipients and SAC's Queens University of Charlotte with 149 recipients. The D2 ADA’s top five concluded with Gannon University out of the PSAC with 144 nominees. 

In order for a student-athlete to receive an Academic Achievement Award, the athletics director of the Division II institution MUST BE a CURRENT dues-paying member of the D2 ADA. 

Also, the student-athlete must: 
· have a cumulative grade point average of 3.5 or higher on a 4.0 scale 
· have attended a minimum of two years (four semesters) of college level work 
· have been an active member of an intercollegiate team during his/her last academic year