• Complete William V. Campbell Trophy Semifinalists Release
Three Ohio Valley Conference football student-athletes have been named semifinalists for the 2016 William V. Campbell Trophy, presented by Fidelity Investments®. The award recognizes an individual as the absolute best football scholar-athlete in the nation and is prominently displayed inside its official home at the New York Athletic Club.
The student-athletes include Austin Peay senior tight end
Trey Salisbury, Eastern Kentucky senior defensive lineman
Avery Pitt and Murray State senior defensive back
Toby Omli. The trio are three of just 36 student-athletes from Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) schools and 156 nationally across all divisions of college football.
Salisbury is a finance major who has been a two-time Austin Peay Dean's List selection and a sixt-time Ausitn Peay Athletic Director's Honor Roll pick.
Pitt has a 3.45 GPA and is majoring in occupational safety. He is a team captain and a member of the players staff team leadership group. In four seasons, Pitt has started 27 times and played in 39 games. This year he has nine tackles through three games, including a sack and a team-best 2.5 tackles for a loss. In addition to his success on the field and in the classroom, Pitt is involved in several campus organizations and community service projects. He is a member of the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) and Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. Pitt has worked with the Hands and Feet project, traveling to Haiti in May 2015 to help build the foundation to a hydroponic system at a Jacmel orphanage, helped organize food donations for the on-campus food bank, was a Jock 'N Roll participant with proceeds from the event helping send two veterans to Ohio Valley Conference basketball tournament, participated in the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation "Roaring for a Cure" walk, worked with students at Model School’s activity day multiple times and read books to students at local elementary school on Read Across America day.
Omli is majoring in engineering physics and currently boasts a 3.82 GPA in addition to his prowess on the football field. So far this season, Omli has started each game for the Racers and is averaging 4.8 tackles per game to go along with 2.0 tackles-for-loss for a total of 11 yards of loss, 1.0 sacks for a total loss of eight yards and a forced fumble.
The NFF will announce 12-14 finalists on Nov. 1, and each of them will receive an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship as a member of the NFF National Scholar-Athlete Class, presented by Fidelity Investments. The finalists will travel to New York City for the 59th NFF Annual Awards Dinner on Dec. 6, where their accomplishments will be highlighted in front of one of the most powerful audiences in all of sports. At the event, one member of the class will be declared the winner of the 27th William V. Campbell Trophy and have his postgraduate scholarship increased to $25,000.
Named in honor of the late Bill Campbell, former chairman of Intuit, former player and head coach at Columbia University and the 2004 recipient of the NFF’s Gold Medal, the Campbell Trophy is a 25-pound bronze trophy and increases the amount of the recipient’s grant by $7,000 for a total postgraduate scholarship of $25,000. This year’s postgraduate scholarships will push the program’s all-time distribution to more than $11.1 million.
“The NFF would like to personally congratulate each of the nominees as well as their schools and coaches on their tremendous accomplishments,” said NFF President & CEO Steve Hatchell. “We are extremely proud to highlight each semifinalist’s achievements, showcasing their ability to balance academics and athletics at the highest level. The NFF Awards Committee will have an incredibly difficult task in selecting the finalists from this outstanding group of candidates.”
Nominated by their schools, which are limited to one nominee each, candidates for the awards must be a senior or graduate student in their final year of eligibility, have a GPA of at least 3.2 on a 4.0 scale, have outstanding football ability as a first team player or significant contributor and have demonstrated strong leadership and citizenship. The class is selected each year by the NFF Awards Committee, which is comprised of a nationally recognized group of media, College Football Hall of Famers and athletics administrators.