List of Football Academic All-America Team Members of the Year

The annually-awarded Football Academic All-America Team Member of the Year is the most outstanding singular college football athlete selected for the Academic All-America Teams in a given year. Selected by the College Sports Communicators (formerly known as College Sports Information Directors of America, or CoSIDA), the Academic All-America program recognizes combined athletic performance and academic achievement excellence of the nation's top student-athletes.

Football Academic All-America Team Members of the Year

Awarded for	the yearly outstanding men's American football Academic All-America team member
Country	United States & Canada
Presented by	College Sports Communicators
History
Most recent	Travis Hunter, Colorado Brayden Long, Slippery Rock Aaron Syverson, Saint John's (MN) Jameson Chesser, Taylor
Next ceremony	January 2026
Website	academicallamerica.com

Formerly, an Academic All-District team of honorees based on CSC member nominations and voting was chosen in each of eight geographic districts across the United States and Canada.^[1] Academic All-District and All-America teams were chosen separately for various levels of collegiate athletic competition (known as divisions). For each division, a set of eight districts was delineated. For the NCAA Division I-level teams for the seasons up to the 2021–22 academic year, districts were as follows: – District 1 (CT, MA, ME, NH, NY, RI, VT), District 2 (DC, DE, KY, MD, NJ, PA, WV), District 3 (NC, TN, VA), District 4 (AL, FL, GA, PR, SC), District 5 (IL, IN, MI, OH), District 6 (AR, IA, LA, MN, MO, MS, MT, ND, SD, WI, WY), – District 7 (CO, ID, KS, NE, NM, NV, OK, TX), District 8 (AK, AZ, CA, HI, OR, UT, WA, Canada). Other divisions use other district groupings.^[2] Formerly, only first team All-District honorees made the All-America team ballots. In 2022, the All-District selection process was eliminated, with all eligible nominees being included on the Academic All-America final ballot. In addition, tennis and swimming & diving were added as separate sports from the at-large set of sports. Also, the qualifying grade point average was raised from 3.3 to 3.5.^[3]

From 1996 to 2010, this team selection process was held separately for the College and University Divisions. The University Division Academic All-America and Academic All-District teams included eligible participants from National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I member schools, while the College Division team included scholar-athletes from all of the following: NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III, National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), Canadian universities and colleges and two-year colleges. From each team one winner for each sport was chosen from both the College and University Divisions for all twelve Academic All-America teams including football to be the team member of the year. Thus, all twelve Academic All-American teams (men's and women's basketball, men's and women's soccer, men's and women's track & field/cross country, men's baseball, women's softball, men's football, women's volleyball, men's and women's swimming & diving, men's and women's tennis and all remaining sanctioned men's and women's sports as at-large teams) had one Academic All-American of the Year per division. One of these twelve sport-by-sport Academic All-Americans of the year is selected as the Academic All-America Team Member of the Year for each division.^[4] The most recent football player to win the all-sports honor is Owen Grover of Wartburg College, who received the Division III award for the 2023–24 academic year.^[5][a]

In 2011, the Academic All-America program was expanded from two to four divisions. NCAA Divisions II and III were separated into their own divisions, while the College Division was then restricted to non-NCAA institutions.^[6] Most recently, effective with the 2018–19 school year, the College Division was split, with NAIA members now receiving their own set of awards, while in some sports two-year college, Canadian institutions and any other institution not affiliated with the NCAA or NAIA also get a set of rewards under the College Division.^[1] However, the football selection process has incorporated Canada into the districts for the other four sets.^[2]

History

Two-time Winners

Danny Wuerffel in 2019
1995 and 1996 winner

Tim Tebow in 2012
2008 and 2009 winner

Justin Herbert in 2021
2018 and 2019 winner

Cameron Dukes in 2023
2020–21 and 2021 winner

Although Nebraska Cornhuskers football has the most Football Academic All-America selections,^[7] only Rob Zatechka has earned this award for Nebraska.^[8]

Several of the Football Academic All-America of the Year winners have gone on to win the overall Academic All-America of the Year. For Division I, Tommy Vardell (1991), Jim Hansen (1992), Rob Zatechka (1994), Danny Wuerffel (1996), Peyton Manning (1997), Matt Stinchcomb (1998), Chad Pennington (1999), Alex Smith (2004), Barrett Jones (2012), Carson Wentz (2015), Justin Herbert (2019), and Mac Jones (2020–21) all earned the overall award. Before the split, College Division selectees Chris Palmer (1995), T.J. Hess (2001), Josh Lamberson (2005) and Greg Micheli (2008) were overall winners. Since the split, Division II honorees Jason Vander Laan (2015) and John Matocha (2022), as well as Division III winner Owen Grover (2024), have won the overall award.^[9] No NAIA honoree has won the all-sports award since the split.

Several have been repeat winners of this award.^[8]Justin Herbert is the most recent repeat Division I winner. He was preceded by Tim Tebow and Danny Wuerffel. Before the College Division was divided, its repeat winners included David Gubbrud, Chris Hatcher and Corte McGuffey. Since the split, Ugdam Goya has repeated at Division III and Jake Snodgrass and Cameron Dukes have repeated at NAIA.^[8]

Tables of winners

Overall Team Members of the Year

Peyton Manning in 2021
1997 winner

Chad Pennington in 2003
1999 winner

Alex Smith in 2020
2004 winner

Barrett Jones in 2013
2012 winner

Carson Wentz in 2022
2015 winner

Mac Jones in 2021
2020–21 winner

Key

†	Indicates winners of the all-sports Academic All-America award.

Two-division era (1987–2010)

Football Academic All-America Team Members of the Year (1987–2010)

Year	University Division			College Division
	Winner	School		Winner	School
1987	Kip Corrington[10]		Texas A&M	Grant Jones[10]		Denison
1988	Paul Sorenson[11]		Dartmouth	David Gubbrud[11]		Augustana (SD)
1989	Michael Thorson[12]		Army	David Gubbrud[12]		Augustana (SD)
1990	Bill Musgrave[13]		Oregon	Robert O'Toole[13]		Carnegie Mellon
1991	Tommy Vardell†[14]		Stanford	Karl Kuhn[14]		Arkansas Tech
1992	Jim Hansen†[15]		Colorado	Roderick Tranum[15]		MIT
1993	Tim Ruddy[16]		Notre Dame	Chris Hatcher[16]		Valdosta State
1994	Rob Zatechka†[17]		Nebraska	Chris Hatcher[17]		Valdosta State
1995	Danny Wuerffel[18]		Florida	Chris Palmer†[18]		Saint John's (MN)
1996	Danny Wuerffel†[19]		Florida	Lon Erickson[19]		Illinois Wesleyan
1997	Peyton Manning†[20]		Tennessee	Brad Gray[20]		MIT
1998	Matt Stinchcomb†[21]		Georgia	Corte McGuffey[21]		Northern Colorado
1999	Chad Pennington†[22]		Marshall	Corte McGuffey[22]		Northern Colorado
2000	Drew Brees[23]		Purdue	Dave Wonderlick[23]		Susquehanna
2001	Ryan Johnson[24]		Montana State	T.J. Hess†[24]		Widener
2002	Kliff Kingsbury[25]		Texas Tech	Mike Bowman[26]		Susquehanna
2003	Craig Krenzel[27]		Ohio State	Tyler Paul[27]		Emporia State
2004	Alex Smith†[28]		Utah	Ty Touchstone[28]		Eastern New Mexico
2005	Nick Hartigan[29]		Brown	Josh Lamberson †[29]		Northwest Missouri State
2006	Paul Posluszny[30]		Penn State	Ryan Meredith[30]		Pittsburg State
2007	Brandon Cramer[31]		Dayton	Danny Woodhead[31]		Chadron State
2008	Tim Tebow[32]		Florida	Greg Micheli†[32]		Mount Union
2009	Tim Tebow[33]		Florida	Beau Kildow[33]		Morningside
2010	Greg McElroy[34]		Alabama	Isaac Odim[34]		Minnesota–Duluth

Four-division era (2011–present)

Football Academic All-America Team Members of the Year (2011–present)

Year	Division I			Division II			Division III			College/NAIA[b]
	Winner	School		Winner	School		Winner	School		Winner	School
2011	Andrew Luck[6]		Stanford	Clay Garcia[35]		Colorado Mines	Michael Zweifel[36]		Dubuque	Jake Snodgrass[37]		McPherson
2012	Barrett Jones†[38]		Alabama	Dustin Vaughan[39]		West Texas A&M	Nick Driskill[40]		Mount Union	Jake Snodgrass[41]		McPherson
2013	Gabe Ikard[42]		Oklahoma	Trent Adams[43]		Northwest Missouri State	John Arena[44]		Johns Hopkins	Lamont Wims[45]		Robert Morris (IL)
2014	Zach Zenner[46]		South Dakota State	Kevin Rodgers[47]		Henderson State	Michael Bates[48]		Illinois College	Connor Zumpfe[49]		Nebraska Wesleyan
2015	Carson Wentz†[50]		North Dakota State	Jason Vander Laan†[51]		Ferris State	Hank Spencer[52]		Mount Union	Logan Paben[53]		Peru State
2016	Christian McCaffrey[54]		Stanford	Kyle Zimmerman[55]		Northwest Missouri State	Ryan Anderson[56]		Olivet	Logan Brettell[57]		Baker
2017	Marlon Walls[58]		Stephen F. Austin	Ty Reasnor[59]		Arkansas Tech	Ugdam Goyal[60]		MIT	Gunnar Orcutt[61]		Peru State
2018	Justin Herbert[62]		Oregon	Kirby Hora[63]		Augustana (SD)	Ugdam Goyal[64]		MIT	Trent Solsma[65]		Morningside
2019	Justin Herbert†[66]		Oregon	Brant Grisel[67]		Charleston (WV)	Matt Anderson[68]		Wisconsin–Whitewater	Hilton Joseph[69]		Waldorf
2020–21[c]	Mac Jones†[70]		Alabama	Evan Ernst[71]		Ohio Dominican	Steven Sellers[72]		Mary Hardin–Baylor	Cameron Dukes[73]		Lindsey Wilson
2021	Charlie Kolar[74]		Iowa State	Henry Litwin[75]		Slippery Rock	Matt Anderson[76]		Grove City	Cameron Dukes[77]		Lindsey Wilson
2022	Will Levis[78]		Kentucky	John Matocha†[78]		Colorado Mines	Cormac Madigan[78]		Ripon	Ryan Cole[78]		Morningside
2023	Rome Odunze[79]		Washington	Nolan Reeve[79]		Colorado Mines	Owen Grover†[79]		Wartburg	Jaden Meizinger[79]		Keiser
2024	Travis Hunter[80]		Colorado	Brayden Long[80]		Slippery Rock	Aaron Syverson[80]		Saint John's (MN)	Jameson Chesser[80]		Taylor

Schools with multiple awards

School		Awards
	Florida	4[m 1]
	MIT	4[m 2]
	Alabama	3
	Colorado Mines	3
	Augustana (SD)	3[m 3]
	Morningside	3
	Mount Union	3
	Northwest Missouri State	3
	Stanford	3
	Arkansas Tech	2
	Colorado	2
	Lindsey Wilson	2[m 4]
	McPherson	2[m 4]
	Oregon	2[m 4]
	Peru State	2
	Saint John's (MN)	2
	Slippery Rock	2
	Susquehanna	2
	Valdosta State	2[m 4]

Footnotes

1. Four awards won by two individuals
2. Four awards won by three individuals
3. Three awards won by two individuals
4. Two awards won by the same individual

Notes

1. Football awards are normally presented in the fall and overall awards in spring. The only exception to date was in 2020–21, when COVID-19 disruptions caused the announcement of the football awards to be delayed until summer 2021.
2. College Division, 2011–2017; NAIA, 2018–present
3. Officially designated as "2020–21" awards; Division I FBS played in fall 2020, while most teams at other levels either did not play at all or played in spring 2021.