PROVO -- The Mountain West Conference honored BYU student-athletes for their academic success as a league-high 72 Cougars were named to the 2008 Fall Academic-All MWC Team Monday afternoon.
"We have exceptional student-athletes at BYU and are thrilled with their success in athletics and in the classroom during fall semester," said BYU Director of Athletics Tom Holmoe. "Both endeavors are equally important to us at BYU and demonstrate the quality of our student-athletes."
BYU led the conference with 21 more student-athletes earning academic accolades than any other MWC institution. Utah followed with 51 athletes honored, followed by New Mexico (47), UNLV and TCU (45), Wyoming (38), Air Force (35) Colorado State (29) and San Diego State (22).
The BYU football team led the Cougars with a conference-best 31 players on the All-Academic Team. Other contributing BYU teams included women’s cross country (14), women’s soccer (10), men’s cross country (9) and women’s volleyball (8).
A total of 384 athletes were named to the Academic All-MWC Team. To be eligible for selection, student-athletes must have completed at least one academic term at the member institution while maintaining a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or better, and be a starter or significant contributor on their athletic team.