The current Academic All-America®
current College Division will be split into two divisions – one for NAIA member-schools and the other for two-year and Canadian (U Sports) member schools.
Beginning in the fall 2018 semester for the 2018-19 academic year, CoSIDA is introducing a fifth division it is signature program — the Google Cloud Academic All-America® program. Voted on by the CoSIDA Board of Directors, this fifth division will split the current Academic All-America® College Division into separate divisions.
The current core program honors student-athletes in four divisions: NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III and the College Division — which is made up of NAIA, Canadian (U Sports) and two-year member schools.
Under the revised format, NAIA schools will represent one division exclusively while the Canadian U Sports and two-year member schools be moved to the new fifth division of the program.
“The CoSIDA Board of Directors has been discussing this new approach over the past year as a way to enhance opportunities that will benefit all three groups in the College Division program and also provide more balance in the program,” said CoSIDA Executive Director Doug Vance.
“We concluded that the NAIA, because of its dominance, deserved a stand-alone division and that by dividing out the two-year and Canadian schools, we will enhance opportunities for their student-athletes to be honored.”
The new fifth division of the program will be home for the two-year and Canadian member schools and will be structured in a different format than the other four divisions due to smaller membership and nomination numbers. They will have an at-large team selected annually.
More detailed information for CoSIDA members will be forthcoming this summer with specifics regarding the NAIA Academic All-America® division and the new college division for two-year and Canadian student-athletes.
The NCAA Division II and III Google Cloud Academic All-America® programs are partially supported financially by the NCAA Division II and III national governance structures, to assist CoSIDA with handling the awards fulfillment aspects for the DII and DIII Academic All-America® teams. The NAIA will also contribute funding to support the new 2018-19 awards structure.
On May 7,
Google Cloud was announced as the new title sponsor of the Academic All-America® program.
For more information on the Google Cloud Academic All-America® program, explore the
AcademicAllAmerica.com website, or follow on
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YouTube.