UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Ninety-four Penn State student-athletes earned Academic All-Big Ten honors from Penn State's fall programs. The 94 fall selections equals the number of honorees Penn State earned in the fall of 2018. This ranks as the third-highest total since 1991-92, Penn State's first year of competition in the Big Ten.
Eleni Prodes (field hockey), Blake Gillikin (football), Julia Paternain (women's cross country/track and field) and Kerry Abello (women's soccer) each own perfect 4.0 grade-point averages.
Abello and Gillikin each earned CoSIDA Academic All-America first-team honors, in addition to earning academic all-conference honors. Penn State has now earned 207 CoSIDA Academic All-America honors in program history.
The football program had 28 academic all-conference honorees and the Big Ten Tournament Champion women's soccer program had 15 award winners. Field hockey placed 14 on the Academic All-Big Ten list while women's cross country and men's soccer each had 11 honorees. Women's volleyball had eight recipients and men's cross country had seven honorees.
In 2018-19, the Penn State athletic department set a school record with 368 Academic All-Big Ten selections.
Penn State student-athletes have totaled 6,697 Academic All-Big Ten honors since 1991-92. In 2018-19, 117 Nittany Lion student-athletes earned Big Ten Distinguished Scholar awards (3.7 GPA or higher).
Along with their work in the classroom, Penn State student-athletes have led the athletic department to 34 Big Ten championships and nine NCAA national championships since October 2013. For the 20th time in the last 26 years the Nittany Lions finished in top 15 in the Learfield IMG College Director's Cup.
Penn State Highest Academic All-Big Ten Yearly Totals (3.0 GPA):
2018-19 – 368*
2017-18 – 360
2016-17 – 299
2015-16 – 299
2012-13 – 296
2013-14 - 287
*School record
Graduation Success Rates
The 2019 NCAA's annual graduation rates study of institutions across the nation revealed Penn State student-athletes at the University Park campus earned a Graduation Success Rate (GSR) of 91 percent to break the school's all-time record of 90, which was previously set in the 2010, 2017 and 2018 NCAA reports. Nittany Lion students posted a 91 percent graduation rate compared to the 88 percent average for all Division I institutions for students entering from 2009-10 through the 2012-13 academic year.
Penn State student-athletes have delivered a Graduation Success Rate in the 88-91 percent range during each of the past 13 NCAA reports, improving from 88 percent in the 2015 report, to 89 percent in 2016, to 90 percent in 2017 and 2018, and a record-breaking 91 percent figure in 2019. Ten Nittany Lion programs earned 100% graduation rates and 18 programs were above the national average.
To be eligible for Academic All-Big Ten selection, students must be on a varsity team, as verified by being on the official squad list as of November 1 for fall sports, have been enrolled full-time at the institution for a minimum of 12 months, and carry a cumulative grade-point average of 3.0 or higher.
The conference office also awards Academic All-Big Ten distinction in the winter and spring seasons and will present the Distinguished Scholar Award at the end of the academic year. To be eligible for selection, students must be a recipient of Academic All-Big Ten Recognition in the previous academic year, must be enrolled for the entire previous academic year (two semesters or three quarters) and earned a minimum GPA of 3.7 or higher during that time. The Big Ten Distinguished Scholar Award was established by conference Faculty Representatives as an addition to the conference's Academic All-Big Ten program.
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