SoCon announces Fall Academic All-Conference team

SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Four hundred and forty three student-athletes earned spots on the Fall 2023 Academic All-Southern Conference Team, the league office announced Thursday.

Each of the SoCon's 10 full member institutions had at least 26 honorees, representing the sports of men's and women's cross country, football, men's and women's soccer and volleyball.

To be eligible for the academic all-conference team, student-athletes must carry at least a 3.3 cumulative grade-point average at the conclusion of the fall semester and were required to compete in at least one-half of their teams' competitions during the recently concluded campaign. In addition, the student-athletes must have successfully completed at least three semesters at their institutions, making true freshmen and first-year transfers ineligible for inclusion.

Thirty-six student-athletes have maintained perfect 4.0 cumulative GPAs, with Mercer leading the way with seven.

The league's nine Football teams led the way with 126 academic all-conference selections, while the 10 women's soccer teams were second with 111 and the 10 women's cross country programs were third with 61. The nine volleyball teams had 53 selections, the six men's soccer teams had 50 selections and the 10 men's cross country teams followed with 42.

Furman led all schools with 62 members on the academic all-conference team, followed by ETSU with 58. Samford and Wofford finished with 57 and 48 selections, respectively.

The 443 total selections are the most in SoCon history and the 36 perfect GPAs is the second-most selections. The record of 37 perfect GPAs was set in the fall of 2021.