With a focus on academics as well as athletics, the Southern Conference has excelled in the classroom throughout its existence, as hundreds of SoCon student-athletes have been recognized on CoSIDA Academic All-America and all-district teams and a total of 20 Rhodes Scholarship winners have been selected from conference institutions.
Wofford's Rachel Woodlee was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship in 2012-13.
In 2014, the league launched the
SoCon Academic Exchange, a collaborative effort directed by the chief academic officers of the 10 member schools. That group established an annual student research forum, created
awards honoring faculty and staff members and started a program designed to instill leadership and development in faculty members.
Since 1990-91, the Southern Conference has awarded
postgraduate scholarships to deserving student-athletes. What started with two awards in that first year is now 10 scholarships awarded annually.
The SoCon has named
Academic All-Southern Conference teams since 2002-03. There were a record 742 selections in the spring in 2020. In addition, the league administers an
Academic Honor Roll, which also saw record numbers in 2019-20. The
Barrett-Bonner Award recognizes the school with the highest percentage of its student-athletes on the Academic Honor Roll.
Each week throughout the academic year, a SoCon
Student-Athlete of the Week is selected, honoring academic and athletic success. That award also dates to the 2002-03 season.