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SoCon announces 2020-21 Academic Honor Roll
Record 2,740 student-athletes earn recognition for academic achievements
2020-2021 SOCON ACADEMIC HONOR ROLL
2020-21 COMMISSIONER'S MEDIALS
SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The Southern Conference released its academic honor roll for the 2020-21 academic year on Thursday, with a league-record 2,740 student-athletes from the 10 member institutions and 16 associate members earning the distinction.“Congratulations to our honor roll recipients,” SoCon Commissioner Jim Schaus said. “These student-athletes truly understand that the student part comes first. Special thanks goes to coaches, academic staffs and faculty who have supported these student-athletes in their scholastic success.”
The academic honor roll originated in 1988-89, when SoCon athletic directors established the award as a way to recognize the league's outstanding student-athletes. The academic honor roll consists of student-athletes who participated in varsity sports and posted a 3.0 grade point average or higher for the academic year, were eligible the entire academic year and were members of the final squad lists. The award is different from the academic all-conference award, announced Wednesday, which is determined by cumulative GPA and involves a participation requirement.
Of the 2,740 student-athletes on the list, a record 785 earned the Commissioner’s Medal, awarded to student-athletes who attain a GPA of 3.8 or higher throughout the year, and a record 264 posted perfect 4.0 GPAs. This year’s total number of honor roll selections is 94 higher than the previous highwater mark of 2,646 set last year, while there were 75 more student-athletes earning Commissioner’s Medals and 35 more 4.0s than last year.
Mercer paced the league with 336 members on the honor roll, while Samford was second with 288 and ETSU was third with 249. Each of the SoCon’s 10 full members had at least 182 student-athletes on the list and eight of them surpassed 200.
The Citadel paced the league with 93 student-athletes earning Commissioner’s Medals and 41 student-athletes posting 4.0 GPAs, followed closely by Mercer in both categories, with 91 and 39, respectively.
Associate members in men’s soccer (24), wrestling (90), men’s lacrosse (175), women’s lacrosse (50) and rifle (22) accounted for 361 selections.
Football boasted the most student-athletes on the list with 411, followed by men’s lacrosse with 240 and women’s soccer and women’s cross country/track & field with 234. The honor roll includes all 22 SoCon-sponsored sports as well as the non-sponsored sports of swimming and diving, water polo, triathlon and beach volleyball.
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