Southern Miss Teams Receive Two Sports Academic Awards
7/23/2012 12:00:00 AM | General
July 23, 2012
IRVING, Texas - Conference USA Commissioner Britton Banowsky announced Conference USA Institutional Excellence and Sport Academic Awards today and two Southern Miss sport teams earned recognition by posting the highest GPA among Conference USA sponsored sports for the 2011-12 academic year.
The women's cross country squad collected the highest annual GPA of any of the sport winners with a 3.820 GPA, while volleyball boasted a 3.595 GPA.
Southern Miss sports have earned a total of 14 Sport Academic Awards since 1995-96. Volleyball leads the teams with five followed by football, women's golf and men's tennis with two each, women's cross country, women's tennis and women's soccer earned one each.
The Sport Academic Award is given to the team in each conference-sponsored sport with the highest GPA for the 2011-12 academic year. Memphis produced five different teams with the highest GPA for their respective sports, including the men's golf team that also won the 2012 C-USA Championship.
The University of Tulsa earned the Conference USA Institutional Excellence Award for the first time since joining the league.
The Institutional Excellence Award is given to the C-USA institution with the highest grade point average during the 2011-12 academic year for all student-athletes in conference-sponsored sports. Tulsa student-athletes combined for an annual GPA of 3.121, ending Rice's six-year run as the Institutional Excellence recipient. All Rice, Memphis and UTEP student-athletes also combined for a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better.
Six teams were repeat winners from a season ago. The following is a list of all the Sports Academic award honorees:
| Sport | Recipient | GPA |
| Baseball | *Memphis | 3.225 |
| Men's Basketball | *Rice | 3.166 |
| Women's Basketball | East Carolina | 3.381 |
| Men's Cross Country | *Memphis | 3.736 |
| Women's Cross Country | Southern Miss | 3.820 |
| Football | UCF | 2.686 |
| Men's Golf | *Memphis | 3.402 |
| Women's Golf | **Memphis | 3.711 |
| Women's Rowing | Tulsa | 3.343 |
| Men's Soccer | # South Carolina | 3.411 |
| Women's Soccer | *Marshall | 3.479 |
| Softball | Houston | 3.500 |
| Women's Swimming | East Carolina | 3.573 |
| Men's Tennis | Rice | 3.496 |
| Women's Tennis | Memphis | 3.614 |
| Women's Track and Field | Rice | 3.382 |
| Men's Track and Field | Tulsa | 3.41 |
| Volleyball | Southern Miss | 3.595 |
* Repeat Winner
# Affiliate member for men's soccer