USC Aiken Wins Peach Belt Presidents’ Academic Award

HILTON HEAD, S.C. -- The University of South Carolina Aiken athletic department was presented with their first-ever PBC Presidents’ Academic Award at the league’s annual meetings. The award recognizes excellence in academics concerning all of an institution’s student-athletes. 2008-09 is the fourth year the award has been presented.

This spring, the Peach Belt Conference asked each of the league’s 11 members to submit an average GPA for the undergraduate student body and a GPA for all student-athletes. These two numbers were then used to create a ratio identifying which school’s athletes were performing the most ahead of the curve in comparison to the student body. Schools were not measured against one another, just their athletes to their students. USC Aiken had the highest ratio at 1.1136, but at 10 of the 11 PBC member institutions the student-athletes had, on average, a better GPA than the general student body.

The Presidents’ Academic Award is part of a larger conference program to highlight the accomplishments of PBC student athletes in the classroom as well as on the field.

(L to R): Dr. Deb Kladivko, Dr. Thomas Hallman, Angie Osborne and Randy Warrick accept the PBC Presidents' Academic Award at the league annual meetings.