The Baseball Academic All-America Team Member of the Year is the annual most outstanding singular
college baseball athlete of the set of baseball athletes selected for the
Academic All-America Teams in a given year. The following is a list of the annual selection by
College Sports Communicators (CSC), known before the 2022–23 season as the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), and its
Academic All-America sponsor of the individual athlete selected as the most outstanding of the annual Baseball Academic All-America selections. Between 1996 and 2011, one winner each was chosen from both the college and University Divisions for all twelve Academic All-America teams including football. The Academic All-America program recognizes combined athletic and academic excellence of the nation's top student-athletes. 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 all of the following:
NCAA Division II,
NCAA Division III,
National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA),
Canadian universities and
colleges and two-year schools.
Beginning in 2012, CSC revamped its award structure. The University Division was renamed "Division I". Since then, NCAA Divisions II and III have had their own separate All-Americans. The College Division consisted only of non-NCAA institutions through the 2017–18 school year, after which it was effectively replaced by an NAIA division restricted to members of that governing body.[1][a]
Currently, each team selects Academic All-District honorees in eight geographic districts across the United States and Canada.[2] The districts are as follows: – 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), District 8 (
AK,
AZ,
CA,
HI,
OR,
UT,
WA,
Canada).[3] First team All-District honorees make 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) have four Academic All-Americans of the Year, one from each division. In each of the four divisions (NAIA, Division I, Division II, and Division III), one of the twelve sport-by-sport Academic All-Americans of the Year is selected as the
Academic All-America Team Member of the Year for that division.[4]
On August 7, 2012, Division III honoree
Drew Golz of
Wheaton College became the first Baseball Academic All-America Team Member of the Year to be named Division III
Academic All-America Team Member of the Year. That same year Golz had been named
Men's Soccer Academic All-America Team Member of the Year, becoming the first male
student-athlete to be named Academic All-America Team Member of the Year for two different sports in the same year.[7] The next day, Division II honoree Bryan Lippincott of
Concordia University, St. Paul became the Division II Academic All-America Team Member of the Year.[8] Thus, for the 2011–12 academic calendar, baseball had the Academic All-America Team Member of the Year for two of the four Divisions. The most recent baseball awardee that was named overall Academic All-America Team Member of the Year is John Coleman of Division III
Clarkson University. Like Golz, Clarkson was named Academic All-America Team Member of the Year, having been previously named Academic All-America Team Member of the Year in basketball. Coleman was the third and second male two-sport honoree, following Golz in 2011–12 and Cynthia Capp of
West Virginia Wesleyan who earned the honor in volleyball (1990) and softball (1991).[9]
When the Division I level was known as the University Division, it had repeat back-to-back winners in 2000 & 2001 and 2002 & 2003 with Casey Myers (of
Arizona State Sun Devils baseball)[10][11] being followed by Jeff Leise (of
Nebraska Cornhuskers baseball).[12][13] In 2001 and 2002, Douglas Hargett of
University of North Alabama was the first College Division repeat winner before the College Division was split.[11][12] Since Division II and Division III were split from NAIA, two-year and Canadian schools, Conner Combs repeated for the Division III
East Texas Baptist Tigers in 2016 and 2017.[14][15]
Tables of winners
Names in bold indicate winners of the all-sports Academic All-America award.
Two-division era (1988–2011)
Baseball Academic All-America Team Members of the Year (1988–2011)
^The College Division still exists within the CoSIDA Academic All-America program, but awards are only presented in CoSIDA'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.