2009 College Football All - America Team An All - American team is an honorary sport s team for a specific season composed of the best amateur players at each position — who in turn are given the honorific " All - America " and typically referred to as " All - American athletes " , or simply " All - Americans " . Although the honorees generally do not compete together as a unit , the term is used in U . S . team sports to refer to players who are selected by members of the national media . The College Football All - America Team is an honor given annually to the best American college football players at their respective positions . The original All - America team was the 1889 College Football All - America Team selected by Casper Whitney and Walter Camp . In 1950 the National Collegiate Athletic Bureau , which is the National Collegiate Athletic Association ' s ( NCAA ) service bureau , compiled the first list of All - Americans including first - team selections on teams created for a national audience that received national circulation with the intent of recognizing selections made from viewpoints that were nationwide . Since 1952 , College Sports Information Directors of America ( CoSIDA ) has bestowed Academic All - American recognition on male and female athletes in Divisions I , II , and III of the NCAA as well as National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics athletes , covering all NCAA championship sports . The 2009 College Football All - America Team is composed of the following College Football All - American first teams : Associated Press ( AP ) , Football Writers Association of America ( FWAA ) , American Football Coaches Association ( AFCA ) , Walter Camp Foundation ( WCFF ) , " The Sporting News " ( " TSN " ) , " Sports Illustrated " ( " SI " ) , " Pro Football Weekly " ( " PFW " ) , ESPN , CBS Sports ( CBS ) , " College Football News " ( " CFN " ) , Rivals . com , and Scout . com . Currently , NCAA compiles consensus all - America teams in the sports of Division I - FBS football and Division I men ’ s basketball using a point system computed from All - America teams named by coaches associations or media sources . The system consists of three points for first team , two points for second team and one point for third team . Honorable mention and fourth team or lower recognitions are not accorded any points . Football consensus teams are compiled by position and the player accumulating the most points at each position is named first team consensus all - American . Currently , the NCAA recognizes All - Americans selected by the AP , AFCA , FWAA , " TSN " , and the WCFF to determine Consensus All - Americans . Honorees ' statistics . For the 2009 NCAA Division I FBS football season , the following players were unanimous first - team selections on the twelve nationwide lists exhibited below : Eric Berry , Drew Butler , Joe Haden , Russell Okung , C . J . Spiller , Ndamukong Suh and Golden Tate . Of the unanimous selections , Spiller was the only player selected at multiple positions : running back by " Pro Football Weekly " and Kickoff returner by all other selection committees . In addition , Toby Gerhart , Jerry Hughes , Mark Ingram , Jr . , Rolando McClain and Colt McCoy were unanimous first - team selections by the five NCAA - sanctioned selectors . Mike Johnson , Mike Iupati and Earl Thomas were selected to the most ( 10 each ) first team lists without being unanimously selected by all five of the NCAA - sanctioned first team lists . Danario Alexander was selected to the four lists without being chosen to any of the NCAA - sanctioned first team lists , while Kellen Moore and Brandon Graham were each selected to three unsanctioned first team lists . Colt McCoy has the distinction of being selected to the least number of lists ( 8 ) while being selected to all five sanctioned first teams . Zane Beadles , who was a 2009 second team Academic All - America selection , is the only player to make one of the 2009 College Football All - America Teams and the 2009 College Football Academic All - America Team . Tim Tebow , who was a 2007 and 2008 College Football All - America Team selection , was a first team 2009 College Football Academic All - America Team selection . Academic All - America . The following players were selected to the University Division Academic All - America first and second teams .