LEXINGTON, Ky. - The American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) announced today that 822 teams have earned the AVCA Team Academic Award for the 2016-2017 season, including two Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) programs.
This number breaks the previous year's total of 764 to set an all-time high.
Colorado College and Southwestern University are the two programs from the league that earned the honor. Both programs also earned at-large bids to the 2016 NCAA Division III Volleyball Championship and won at least one match.
The award, which was initiated in the 1992-93 academic year, honors collegiate and high school volleyball teams that displayed excellence in the classroom during the school year by maintaining at least a 3.30 cumulative team grade-point average on a 4.0 scale or a 4.10 cumulative team GPA on a 5.0 scale.
The AVCA Team Academic Award, celebrating its 25th year, is the single largest award offered by quantity of schools, players and coaches honored. Since the 2000-2001 season, the number of recipients have increased every single year but two, while amassing a 532 team increase over the span of the last decade. Since the award's inception in 1993, the amount of award winners has increased from 62 to its current number of 822.