Women's Basketball Academic All-America Team Members of the Year | |
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Awarded for | The yearly outstanding women's college basketball Academic All-America team member |
Country | United States & Canada |
Presented by | Capital One & the College Sports Information Directors of America |
Currently held by | Ally Disterhoft, Iowa Cassidy Mihalko, California Baptist Lisa Murphy, Carnegie Mellon Cassidy Deno, Purdue Northwest |
Official website | Cosida |
List of Women's Basketball Academic All-America Team Members of the Year is a list of the annual selection by the College Sports Information Directors of America and its Academic All-America sponsor of the individual athlete selected as the most outstanding of the annual Women's Basketball Academic All-America selections. From 1996 through 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, COSIDA revamped its award structure. The University Division was renamed "Division I". NCAA Divisions II and III now have their own separate All-Americans, while the College Division now consists only of non-NCAA institutions.
Currently, each team selects Academic All-District honorees in eight geographic districts across the United States and Canada. 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 one Academic All-American of the Year for each division. One of these twelve sport-by-sport Academic All-American of the year is selected as the Academic All-America Team Members of the Year for each division. The most recent women's basketball player to have earned the all-sports honor is Lauren Battista of Bentley University in Massachusetts, winner of the 2014 Division II award.