IRVING, Texas – The National Football Foundation & College Football Hall of Fame (NFF) recognized six players from the BYU football team as members of its 2025 NFF Hampshire Honor Society, which is comprised of college football players from all divisions who each maintained a cumulative 3.2 GPA or better throughout their college careers.
An elite group of 2,514 players from 339 schools qualified for membership in 2025, setting a new record for the number of members in a single year during the program's 19-year history. The initiative has now honored 20,928 student-athletes since its inception across all divisions of football. See the complete 2025 Hampshire Honor Society Member List.
Nominated by their respective schools, members of the NFF Hampshire Honor Society must meet one of the following criteria:
- Be a senior player graduating this spring/summer who completed his final year of playing eligibility in 2024; or
- Be a graduated player or grad transfer who has already earned a bachelor's degree and competed in the 2024 season (even if the player has remaining eligibility and may return to play next season).
And must have:
- Attained a minimum undergraduate cumulative GPA of 3.2 (4.0 scale); and
- Been starters or contributors throughout the 2024 season.
Players from BYU's 2024 team honored by the NFF include quarterback Gerry Bohanon (Health, Kinesiology and Leisure Studies), Choé Bryant-Strother (Sociology), Isaiah Jatta (Economics), Blake Mangelson (Family Life), Connor Pay (Entreprenurial Management) and Tanner Wall (Finance).
With 94 overall honorees since the inception of the program in 2007, BYU ranks No. 1 among Big 12 schools for the most players to earn recognition in the NFF Hampshire Honor Society. Kansas State is next with 87. BYU's 94 is No. 4 among all FBS schools.
The Cougars are also one of seven FBS schools to have had at least one player earning selection in all 19 years of the NFF Hampshire Honor Society (2007-25) along with Minnesota, West Virginia, Penn State, Iowa, Kentucky and SMU.
Big 12 universities were led by Kansas with 22 members. The league placed a total of 124 student-athletes in the 2025 NFF Hampshire Honor Society.
"In today's era of NIL and the transfer portal, we firmly believe that education remains the key to long-term success," said NFF President & CEO Steve Hatchell. "These results reaffirm that academics are still top of mind for today's student-athletes. We salute the schools, coaches, and administrators who continue to champion education as a core part of the student-athlete experience. We'll keep doing everything we can to promote those academic ideals and ensure education stays central to the holistic development of every student-athlete."
The NFF Hampshire Honor Society capitalizes on the NFF's National Scholar-Athlete program by greatly expanding the number of scholar-athletes the NFF can recognize each year. The program further strengthens the organization's leadership role in encouraging academic performance by the student-athletes at the 774 colleges and universities with football programs nationwide.
The Hampshire Honor Society represents an important component in the National Football Foundation's rich history as an innovator in promoting the scholar-athlete ideal, which began in 1959 with the NFF National Scholar-Athlete Awards