# 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.
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. 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. 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.
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 schools. 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. 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.
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. 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. However, the football selection process has incorporated Canada into the districts for the other four sets.

## History

Although Nebraska Cornhuskers football has the most Football Academic All-America selections, only Rob Zatechka has earned this award for Nebraska.
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. No NAIA honoree has won the all-sports award since the split.
Several have been repeat winners of this award.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.

## Tables of winners

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

### Four-division era (2011–present)

Football Academic All-America Team Members of the Year (2011–present) :
| Year | Div. I Winner | School | Div. II Winner | School | Div. III Winner | School | College/NAIA Winner | School |
| 2011 | Andrew Luck | Stanford | Clay Garcia | Colorado Mines | Michael Zweifel | Dubuque | Jake Snodgrass | McPherson |
| 2012 | Barrett Jones† | Alabama | Dustin Vaughan | West Texas A&M | Nick Driskill | Mount Union | Jake Snodgrass | McPherson |
| 2013 | Gabe Ikard | Oklahoma | Trent Adams | Northwest Missouri State | John Arena | Johns Hopkins | Lamont Wims | Robert Morris (IL) |
| 2014 | Zach Zenner | South Dakota State | Kevin Rodgers | Henderson State | Michael Bates | Illinois College | Connor Zumpfe | Nebraska Wesleyan |
| 2015 | Carson Wentz† | North Dakota State | Jason Vander Laan† | Ferris State | Hank Spencer | Mount Union | Logan Paben | Peru State |
| 2016 | Christian McCaffrey | Stanford | Kyle Zimmerman | Northwest Missouri State | Ryan Anderson | Olivet | Logan Brettell | Baker |
| 2017 | Marlon Walls | Stephen F. Austin | Ty Reasnor | Arkansas Tech | Ugdam Goyal | MIT | Gunnar Orcutt | Peru State |
| 2018 | Justin Herbert | Oregon | Kirby Hora | Augustana (SD) | Ugdam Goyal | MIT | Trent Solsma | Morningside |
| 2019 | Justin Herbert† | Oregon | Brant Grisel | Charleston (WV) | Matt Anderson | Wisconsin–Whitewater | Hilton Joseph | Waldorf |
| 2020–21 | Mac Jones† | Alabama | Evan Ernst | Ohio Dominican | Steven Sellers | Mary Hardin–Baylor | Cameron Dukes | Lindsey Wilson |
| 2021 | Charlie Kolar | Iowa State | Henry Litwin | Slippery Rock | Matt Anderson | Grove City | Cameron Dukes | Lindsey Wilson |
| 2022 | Will Levis | Kentucky | John Matocha† | Colorado Mines | Cormac Madigan | Ripon | Ryan Cole | Morningside |
| 2023 | Rome Odunze | Washington | Nolan Reeve | Colorado Mines | Owen Grover† | Wartburg | Jaden Meizinger | Keiser |
| 2024 | Travis Hunter | Colorado | Brayden Long | Slippery Rock | Aaron Syverson | Saint John's (MN) | Jameson Chesser | Taylor |

## Schools with multiple awards

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

### Footnotes

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