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The Men's Basketball Academic All-America Team Member of the Year is the annually-awarded most outstanding singular college basketball male athlete selected for the Academic All-America Teams in a given year. The Academic All-America program is selected by the College Sports Communicators (formerly known as College Sports Information Directors of America, or CoSIDA), and recognizes combined athletic performance and academic achievement excellence of the nation's top student-athletes.
| Awarded for | the yearly outstanding men's college basketball Academic All-America team member |
|---|---|
| Country | United States; Canada |
| Presented by | College Sports Communicators |
| History | |
| Most recent | Max Abmas, Texas Erik Timko, Jefferson Cael Schmitt, Coe Jonathan Brown, Cumberlands |
| Next award announcement | April 15, 2025 |
| Website | academicallamerica.com |
From 1996 through 2011, one winner each was chosen from both the College and University Divisions for all twelve Academic All-America teams. The University Division team included eligible participants from National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I member schools, while the College Division team included scholar-athletes from the NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III, National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), Canadian universities and colleges and two-year schools.
Beginning in 2012, CoSIDA revamped its award structure. The University Division was renamed "Division I", and NCAA Divisions II and III were made their own separate All-American categories. The remaining schools initially still comprised the College Division, but after the 2017–18 school year that was replaced with the NAIA division, restricted to members of that governing body.[1][lower-alpha 1]
Currently, each team selects Academic All-District honorees in eight geographic districts across the United States and Canada.[2] The districts are: District 1 (CT, MA, ME, NH, NY, RI, VT), District 2 (DC, DE, KY, MD, NJ, PA, WV), District 3 (NC, TN, VA), District 4 (AL, FL, GA, PR, SC), District 5 (IL, IN, MI, OH), District 6 (AR, IA, LA, MN, MO, MS, MT, ND, SD, WI, WY), District 7 (CO, ID, KS, NE, NM, NV, OK, TX), and District 8 (AK, AZ, CA, HI, OR, UT, WA, Canada).[3] The All-District honorees make up the All-America team ballots. Currently, all twelve Academic All-American teams (men's and women's basketball, men's and women's soccer, men's and women's track & field, men's baseball, women's softball, men's American football, women's volleyball and men's and women's at-large teams) each have one Academic All-American of the Year for each division. One of these twelve sport-by-sport Academic All-Americans of the year is selected as the Academic All-America Team Member of the Year for each division.[4] The most recent men's basketball players to receive the all-sports honor are Cooper Cook of Nebraska Wesleyan University and Kyle Steigenga of Cornerstone University, respectively named in Division III and the former College Division in 2018.[5][6]
Two-time Winners
Matt Bonner (pictured in 2010), the 2002 and 2003 winner
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Aaron Craft (pictured in 2020), the 2013 and 2014 winner
As of January 31, 2024[update], Illinois Wesleyan University has had the most men's basketball Academic All-America honorees,[7] and three of them have been recognized with this award a total of four times.[8]
Several of the Men's Basketball Academic All-America of the Year winners have gone on to win the overall Academic All-America of the Year. Michael Smith was the first University Division overall winner in 1988. Then, Alec Kessler (1990), Todd Fuller (1996) and Emeka Okafor (2004) also won the University Division overall Academic All-America. Before the College Division was split, Korey Coon (2000) and Troy Ruths (2008) won the overall award. Since the split there have been no Division I or Division II overall winners. However, Colton Hunt (2013), John Coleman (2015) and Cooper Cook (2018) have one the Division III award. Kyle Steigenga (2018) has won the College Division award.[9]
Several have been repeat winners of this award.[8] Notably, Ben Vander Plas, the Division I recipient in 2022 and 2023, is the only repeat winner to have been honored at different schools—Ohio in 2022 and Virginia in 2023.
| † | Indicates winners of the all-sports Academic All-America award. |
All winners are American unless indicated otherwise.
Two-division era (1988–2011)
Four-division era (2012–present)
- The College Division still exists within the CSC Academic All-America program, but awards are only presented in CSC's "at-large" category, encompassing sports in which the organization does not select a dedicated Academic All-America team. See CoSIDA's official calendar for announcement of its 2019–20 Academic All-America honorees.
- The five undergraduate Claremont Colleges operate two athletic programs. Claremont McKenna teams with Harvey Mudd College and Scripps College to field sports teams as Claremont–Mudd–Scripps.
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