• Complete 2019-20 OVC Academic Medal of Honor Selections (PDF) | OVC Academic Medal of Honor History
BRENTWOOD, Tenn. – On Tuesday it was announced that a record 293 Ohio Valley Conference student-athletes have earned the OVC Academic Medal of Honor for the 2019-20 academic year.
The OVC Academic Medal of Honor is given annually to the student-athletes who achieve the highest grade point average in a Conference-sponsored sport. Every Academic Medal of Honor recipient for the 2019-20 academic year carried a perfect 4.0 grade point average.
Of the 293 award winners, 49 were awarded Academic Medals of Honor for multiple sports (and counted just once in the final recipients list).
Eastern Kentucky had the most selections with 37, followed by Austin Peay (34) and Eastern Illinois (33). The sport of women's track and field had the most honorees league-wide (52), followed by women's soccer (42) and softball (37).
The 293 recipients are the most in a single academic year in the history of the award, smashing the previous record of 275 honorees in 2018-19. Over the past five years there have been 1,278 student-athletes earn the OVC Academic Medal of Honor.
Due to the extraordinary circumstances related to the COVID-19 pandemic, spring sport athletes who were eligible and met the GPA requirements, but saw their seasons canceled (therefore not using a season of competition) received the award. Additionally, student-athletes who had pass/fail courses listed on their transcript were also made eligible so long as the institutional GPAs are calculated according to institutional policy.
The OVC will announce the recipients of the Commissioner's Honor Roll, the Academic Achievement Award and the Team Academic Achievement Awards later this week.