NFF Announces William V. Campbell Trophy Semifinalists
Trophy recognizes an individual as the absolute best football scholar-athlete in the nation
The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame announced today the 156 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 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.
“These 156 impressive candidates truly represent the scholar-athlete ideal,” said NFF Chairman Archie Manning whose sons Peyton (Campbell Trophy winner) and Eli were named NFF National Scholar-Athletes in 1997 and 2003, respectively. “It is important for us to showcase their success on the football field, in the classroom and in the community. This year’s semifinalists further illustrate the power of our great sport in developing the next generation of influential leaders.”
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.
The past recipients of the William V. Campbell Trophy include: Air Force’s Chris Howard (1990); Florida’s Brad Culpepper(1991); Colorado’s Jim Hansen (1992); Virginia’s Thomas Burns (1993); Nebraska’s Rob Zatechka (1994); Ohio State’s Bobby Hoying (1995); Florida’s Danny Wuerffel (1996); Tennessee’s Peyton Manning (1997); Georgia’s Matt Stinchcomb (1998); Marshall’s Chad Pennington (1999); Nebraska’s Kyle Vanden Bosch (2000); Miami (Fla.)’s Joaquin Gonzalez (2001); Washington University in St. Louis (Mo.)’s Brandon Roberts (2002); Ohio State’s Craig Krenzel (2003); Tennessee’s Michael Munoz (2004); LSU’s Rudy Niswanger (2005); Rutgers’ Brian Leonard (2006); Texas’ Dallas Griffin (2007); California’s Alex Mack (2008); Florida’s Tim Tebow (2009); Texas’ Sam Acho (2010); Army West Point’s Andrew Rodriguez (2011); Alabama’s Barrett Jones (2012); Penn State’s John Urschel (2013); Duke’s David Helton (2014); and Oklahoma’s Ty Darlington (2015).
Here is the full list of 2016 nominees.
| FOOTBALL BOWL SUBDIVISION (FBS) | FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP SUBDIVISION (FCS) | DIVISION III | |
| Air Force – Claude Alexander | Austin Peay State – Trey Salisbury | Albion (Mich.) – Andrew DiFranco | |
| Arizona State – Matt Haack | Brown – Dakota Girard | Bates (Maine) – Mark Upton | |
| Arkansas – Brooks Ellis | Bucknell – Cary Hess | Bethel (Minn.) – Drew Neuville | |
| Arkansas State – Jake Swalley | Campbell – Jarrett Ozimek | Bridgewater (Va.) – Davey Hardesty | |
| Auburn – Alex Kozan | Charleston Southern – Ben Robinson | Carnegie Mellon (Pa.) – Brian Khoury | |
| Ball State – Sam Brunner | Chattanooga – Derrick Craine | Castleton (Vt.) – Soren Pelz-Walsh | |
| Boise State – Sean Wale | The Citadel – Will Vanvick | DePauw (Ind.) – Will Longthorne | |
| Brigham Young – Taysom Hill | Dayton – Chris Beaschler | Franklin and Marshall (Pa.) – Jonathan Naji | |
| Central Florida – Justin Holman | Delaware – Jalen Randolph | Frostburg State (Md.) – Isaac Robinson | |
| Central Michigan – Cooper Rush | Delaware State – Ernest Mengoni | Gallaudet (D.C.) – Sean Fenton | |
| Colorado – Ryan Severson | Eastern Kentucky – Avery Pitt | Gettysburg (Pa.) – Cordell Boggs | |
| Connecticut – Justin Wain | Elon – John Gallagher | Grinnell (Iowa) – Ibuki Ogasawara | |
| Duke – DeVon Edwards | Harvard – Max Rich | Hardin-Simmons (Texas) – Conlan Aguirre | |
| East Carolina – Zay Jones | Holy Cross – Jake Wieczorek | Hendrix (Ark.) – Ethan Hoppe | |
| Eastern Michigan – Cole Gardner | Idaho State – Hayden Stout | Johns Hopkins (Md.) – Jack Campbell | |
| Florida – Johnny Townsend | Illinois State – Mark Spelman | Kenyon (Ohio) – Joseph Marabito | |
| Florida Atlantic – Dillon DeBoer | Marist – Cameron Gibson | Lake Forest (Ill.) – Sam Mulford | |
| Fresno State – Jacob Vazquez | Missouri State – Dylan Cole | Lycoming (Pa.) – Austin Mital | |
| Georgia State – Bobby Baker | Morehead State – Pat DiSalvio | Macalester (Minn.) – Forest Redlin | |
| Houston – Tyler McCloskey | Murray State – Toby Omli | Maine Maritime – Robert Bradley | |
| Illinois – Joe Spencer | New Hampshire – Casey DeAndrade | Manchester (Ind.) – Zach Rudolf | |
| Indiana – Jacob Bailey | North Dakota State – Chase Morlock | Monmouth (Ill.) – Matt Barnes | |
| Iowa State – Kane Seeley | Northern Iowa – Karter Schult | Moravian (Pa.) – Jalen Snyder-Scipio | |
| Kansas State – Will Davis | Pennsylvania – Nick Demes | Ohio Wesleyan – Mason Tomblin | |
| Kent State – Nick Cuthbert | Princeton – Scott Carpenter | Redlands (Calif.) – Patrick Neville | |
| Kentucky – Jon Toth | Robert Morris – Andy Smigiera | Saint John’s (Minn.) – Carter Hanson | |
| Marshall – Emanuel Byrd | Saint Francis – Lance Geesey | St. John Fisher (N.Y.) – Alec Mortillaro | |
| Memphis – Jake Elliott | San Diego – Devyn Bryant | Trinity (Texas) – Brad Hood | |
| Miami (Fla.) – Justin Vogel | South Dakota State – Nick Mears | Washington & Jefferson (Pa.) – Brandon Martuccio | |
| Michigan – Michael Jocz | Stetson – Davion Belk | Wisconsin-Oshkosh – Branden Lloyd | |
| Michigan State – Josiah Price | Towson – Jake Ryder | Wisconsin-Stout – Logan Stoa | |
| Mississippi – Nathan Noble | Western Carolina – Fred Payne | Wisconsin-Whitewater – John Flood | |
| Mississippi State – Richie Brown | Western Illinois – Nathan Knuffman | Wooster (Ohio) – Todd Ulmer | |
| Missouri – Sean Culkin | William & Mary – Hunter Windmuller | ||
| Navy – Will Worth | Wofford – Nick Colvin | ||
| Nebraska – Josh Banderas | Yale – Sebastian Little | NAIA | |
| North Carolina – Nick Weiler | Morningside (Iowa) – Austin Anfinson | ||
| North Carolina State – Jack Tocho | Northwestern (Iowa) – Craig Bruinsma | ||
| North Texas – Fred Scott | DIVISION II | Peru State (Neb.) – Ryan Zuhlke | |
| Northern Illinois – Drew Hare | Ashland (Ohio) – Zach Bernhard | Trinity International (Ill.) – Riley Schussler | |
| Ohio State – Joe Burger | Bentley (Mass.) – Bryan Hardy | ||
| Old Dominion – Tyler Compton | California of Pa. – Ryan McCauley | ||
| Oregon – Johnny Ragin III | Central Missouri – Garrett Fugate | ||
| Penn State – Tyler Yazujian | Colorado School of Mines – Richie Rice | ||
| Pittsburgh – Dontez Ford | Delta State (Miss.) – Tyler Sullivan | ||
| Purdue – Jake Replogle | Harding (Ark.) – Cordell Zalenski | ||
| Rice – Darik Dillard | Humboldt State (Calif.) – Chase Krivashei | ||
| Rutgers – Quanzell Lambert | Kutztown (Pa.) – Kellen Williams | ||
| San Jose State – Tim Crawley | Malone (Ohio) – JC Pawlyk | ||
| South Carolina – Perry Orth | Northwest Missouri State – Simon Mathiesen | ||
| Southern Mississippi – Cameron Tom | Pittsburg State (Kan.) – Deron Washington | ||
| Stanford – Dallas Lloyd | Stonehill (Mass.) – Anthony Siciliano | ||
| Syracuse – Cameron MacPherson | Tarleton State (Texas) – Cody Burtscher | ||
| Temple – Brendan McGowan | Wayne State (Mich.) – Trent Brodbeck | ||
| Tennessee – Dylan Wiesman | West Chester (Pa.) – Kyle Keyser | ||
| Texas Tech – Justis Nelson | Wingate (N.C.) – Caleb Baird | ||
| Tulsa – Dane Evans | |||
| Utah – Hunter Dimick | |||
| Utah State – Travis Seefeldt | |||
| Virginia – Nicholas Conte | |||
| Wake Forest – Ryan Janvion | |||
| West Virginia – Tyler Orlosky | |||
| Western Kentucky – Marcus Ward | |||
| Western Michigan – Zach Terrell | |||
| Wisconsin – Vince Biegel | |||
| Wyoming – Chase Roullier | |||
Launched in 1959, the NFF National Scholar-Athlete Awards program became the first initiative in history to award postgraduate scholarships based on both a player’s academic and athletic accomplishments, and it has recognized 816 outstanding individuals since its inception. The Campbell Trophy, first awarded in 1990, adds to the program’s prestige, having previously honored two Rhodes Scholars, a Rhodes Scholar finalist, two Heisman Trophy winners and five first-round NFL draft picks.
In 2011, the NFF and Fidelity Investments launched a multi-year initiative between the two organizations to celebrate the scholar-athlete ideal and a joint commitment to higher education. As part of the initiative, Fidelity became the first presenting sponsor of the NFF National Scholar-Athlete Awards program. In 2014, Fidelity became the presenting sponsor of the Campbell Trophy. Fidelity also helped launch the NFF Faculty Salutes, which recognize the contributions of the faculty athletics representatives at each of the institutions with an NFF National Scholar-Athlete. As part of the initiative, the NFF presents each of the faculty representatives with a plaque, and Fidelity donates $5,000 for the academic support services at each school with a total of $380,000 distributed from 2011-15.
