Cleveland, Ohio — The Missouri Southern Athletic Department had 58 student-athletes earn the Division II Athletic Director’s Association (D2ADA) Academic Achievement Award as the organization announced its annual awards recently.

It is the second year in a row that exactly 58 student-athletes from MSSU had earned the honor. Women’s track and field led the way for the Lions with 17 individuals earning the honor. For a complete list, click HERE.

The Academic Achievement Awards, in its 13th year, is a program that recognizes the academic accomplishments of student-athletes at the Division II level.

In total, there were 15,317 student-athletes from 201 institutions recognized for the 2019-20 Academic Achievement Awards. These numbers shattered the records for highest number of participating institutions and the largest number of student-athletes being nominated since the award program’s inception. For the second-straight year, the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) has the largest number of student-athlete honorees with 1,365 total, closely followed by the Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) with 1,333 and the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) with 1,220.

In order for a student-athlete to receive an Academic Achievement Award, the athletics director of the Division II institution MUST BE a CURRENT dues-paying member of the D2 ADA.

Also, the student-athlete must:

  • have a cumulative grade point average of 3.5 or higher on a 4.0 scale
  • have attended a minimum of two years (four semesters) of college level work
  • have been an active member of an intercollegiate team during his/her last academic year

About D2 ADA: The D2 ADA is the first organization of its kind to provide educational and networking opportunities; enhancement of acceptable operating standards and ethics; and establishment of the overall prestige and understanding of the profession of Division II athletics directors. For more information about the D2 ADA, please visit www.div2ada.com. The D2 ADA is administered by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA), which is in its 56th year. For more information on NACDA and the 17 professional associations that fall under its umbrella, please visit www.nacda.com.