HILTON HEAD, S.C. -- Georgia Southwestern State University won its third straight Peach Belt Conference Presidents' Academic Award presented by Barnes & Noble College on Tuesday night at the league's annual awards dinner. This is the fifth overall award for GSW, marking the most of any institution since the conference founded the award in 2006. The three wins in a row is also tied for the longest streak in conference history.
The award recognizes excellence in academics concerning all of an institution's student-athletes.
At the end of the academic school year the Peach Belt Conference asked each of the league's 11 members to submit an average GPA for the undergraduate student body and a GPA for all student-athletes. These two numbers were used to determine each institutions' GPA ratio that identifies which school's athletes are performing most ahead of the curve in comparison to the student body. The schools are not measured against one another, just their athletes to their students.
Georgia Southwestern student-athletes carried an average GPA of 3.21 for the academic year while the undergraduate student-body had a 2.71. That ratio of 1.1845 was the highest among all conference members for the year. The GSW student-athlete GPA is also the highest it has been in the last 10 years.
For only the second time in the history of the award, all 10 PBC member institutions had student-athlete GPAs that were higher than their undergraduate student body. Nine of the 10 institutions had student-athlete GPAs of 3.20 or higher.
The Presidents' Academic Award is part of a larger conference program to highlight the accomplishments of PBC student-athletes in the classroom as well as on the field.
Barnes & Noble College currently operates more than 1,400 campus bookstores and their school-branded e-commerce sites, serving more than 6 million college students and faculty nationwide. As a strategic partner, Barnes & Noble College is a retail and learning company. The company is headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J.
Peach Belt Conference Presidents' Academic Award Recipients
2024-25 - Georgia Southwestern State University
2023-24 - Georgia Southwestern State University
2022-23 - Georgia Southwestern State University
2021-22 – Clayton State University
2020-21 – Clayton State University
2019-20 - Cup not awarded
2018-19 - Clayton State University
2017-18 - (tie) Georgia Southwestern State University & UNC Pembroke
2016-17 - University of North Georgia
2015-16 - Columbus State University
2014-15 - Columbus State University
2013-14 - Armstrong State University
2012-13 - Armstrong State University
2011-12 - Augusta University
2010-11 - UNC Pembroke
2009-10 - UNC Pembroke
2008-09 - University of South Carolina Aiken
2007-08 - Georgia Southwestern State University
2006-07 - Armstrong State University
2005-06 - Armstrong State University
Article provided by the Peach Belt Conference
