Awarded for | The yearly outstanding women's college basketball Academic All-America team member |
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Country | United States & Canada |
Presented by | College Sports Communicators |
History | |
Most recent | Caitlin Clark, Iowa Samantha Pirosko, Gannon Natalie Bruns, NYU Grace Beyer, UHSP |
Next ceremony | April 16, 2025 |
Website | academicallamerica.com |
The Women's Basketball Academic All-America Team Member of the Year is the annually-awarded most outstanding singular college basketball female athlete selected for the Academic All-America Teams in a given year. The Academic All-America program is selected by the College Sports Communicators (formerly known as College Sports Information Directors of America, or CoSIDA), and recognizes combined athletic performance and academic achievement excellence of the nation's top student-athletes.
From 1996 through 2011, one winner each was chosen from both the College and University Divisions for all twelve Academic All-America teams. 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 the NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III, National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), Canadian universities and colleges and two-year schools.
Beginning in 2012, CoSIDA revamped its award structure. The University Division was renamed "Division I", and NCAA Divisions II and III were made their own separate All-American categories. The remaining schools initially still comprised the College Division, but after the 2017–18 school year that was replaced with the 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: 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), and District 8 (AK, AZ, CA, HI, OR, UT, WA, Canada). [3] The All-District honorees make up 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, men's and women's swimming & diving, men's and women's tennis and men's and women's at-large teams) have one Academic All-American of the Year per division. One of these twelve sport-by-sport Academic All-Americans of the year is selected as the Academic All-America Team Member of the Year for each division. [4] The most recent women's basketball players to have earned the all-sports honor did so in 2024—Caitlin Clark of Iowa in Division I, Samantha Pirosko of Gannon in Division II, and Grace Beyer of UHSP in the NAIA. [5]
As of September 17,2024 [update] , Stanford University has had the most women's basketball Academic All-America honorees (18, and 2 more than Ashland University), [6] but only Chiney Ogwumike has been recognized with this award. [7]
As of August 2024 [update] , 13 of the Women's Basketball Academic All-America of the Year winners have gone on to win the overall Academic All-America of the Year. The six Division I overall winners have been Rebecca Lobo (1995, before there were separate awards by level), Ruth Riley (2001), Stacey Dales-Schuman (2002), Maya Moore (2011), Aliyah Boston (2022) and Caitlin Clark (2023 and 2024). Other overall winners have included Kari Daugherty (Division II, 2013), Lauren Battista (Division II, 2014), Samantha Pirosko (Division II, 2024), Grace Barry (NAIA, 2020), and Grace Beyer (NAIA, 2024) as well as Julie Roe (1997) and Emily Bloss (2001) before the College Division was split. [8]
As of August 2024 [update] , there have been 11 repeat winners of this award, including 7 times in Division I: Michelle Flamoe (1988 and 1989), Karen Jennings (1992 and 1993), Moore (2010 and 2011), Elena Delle Donne (2012 and 2013), Ally Disterhoft (2016 and 2017), Boston (2021 and 2022), and Clark (2023 and 2024). In the college division Emilie Hanson (1994 and 1995) and Lindsey Dietz (2005 and 2006) repeated, as did Jenna Taylor (Division III, 2021 and 2022). [7] Beyer (NAIA, 2022–2024) was the first three-time recipient in women's basketball. [9]
† | Indicates winners of the all-sports Academic All-America award. |
All winners are American unless indicated otherwise.
Year | Div. I Winner | School | Div. II Winner | School | Div. III Winner | School | College/NAIA Winner [b] | School | ||||
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2012 | Elena Delle Donne [24] | Delaware | Michelle McDonald [25] | Winona | Carol Cayo [26] | MSOE | Jennifer Jorgensen [27] | Grand View | ||||
2013 | Elena Delle Donne (2) [28] | Delaware | Kari Daugherty† [29] [30] | Ashland | Carissa Verkaik [31] | Calvin (MI) | Hollie German [32] | Lee | ||||
2014 | Chiney Ogwumike [33] | Stanford | Lauren Battista† [34] | Bentley | Stephanie Kuzmanic [35] | Carthage | Samantha Kleinsasser [36] | Northwestern (IA) | ||||
2015 | Ashley Luke [37] | Western Illinois | Suzanna Ohlsen [38] | Seattle Pacific | Heather Johns [39] | Whitman | Morgan Stuut [40] | Saint Xavier | ||||
2016 | Ally Disterhoft [41] | Iowa | Shelby Winkelmann [42] | Central Missouri | Jess Rheinheimer [43] | Eastern Mennonite | Lydia Nash [44] | Union (KY) [c] | ||||
2017 | Ally Disterhoft (2) [45] | Iowa | Cassidy Mihalko [46] | California Baptist | Lisa Murphy [47] | Carnegie Mellon | Cassidy Deno [48] | Purdue Northwest | ||||
2018 | Cherise Beynon [49] [50] | New Mexico | Miranda Ristau [51] [52] | Northern State | Samm Chandler [53] | Averett | Amber Alexander [54] [55] | Vanguard | ||||
2019 | Mikayla Ferenz [56] | Idaho | Jessica Kelliher [57] | Lewis | Hannah Neild [58] | Gallaudet | Kendall Knapke [59] | Indiana Tech | ||||
2020 | Brittany Brewer [60] | Texas Tech | Cassidy Boensch [61] | Grand Valley State | Sydney Kopp [62] | DePauw | Grace Barry† [63] | Concordia (NE) | ||||
2021 | ![]() | South Carolina | Sierra Kotchman [65] | Fairmont State | Jenna Taylor [66] | Simpson | Kylah Comley [67] | Sterling (KS) | ||||
2022 | ![]() | South Carolina | Audrey Tingle [68] | West Liberty | Jenna Taylor (2) [68] | Simpson | Grace Beyer [68] | UHSP | ||||
2023 | Caitlin Clark † [69] | Iowa | Brooke Olson [69] | Minnesota Duluth | Lexie Dellinger [69] | Anderson (IN) | Grace Beyer (2) [69] | UHSP | ||||
2024 | Caitlin Clark (2)† [9] | Iowa | Samantha Pirosko† [9] | Gannon | Natalie Bruns [9] | NYU | Grace Beyer (3)† [9] | UHSP |