FREELAND, Mich. – On Monday, July 26, the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) announced the 109 teams that earned the MIAA Team GPA Award for the 2020-21 academic year.
The MIAA Team GPA Award is presented to conference athletic teams that achieve a 3.300 or better GPA for an academic year. Grade-point averages are calculated at the end of the academic year.
Seven MIAA member institutions - Albion, Alma, Calvin, Hope, Kalamazoo, Saint Mary's, and Trine - had 50 percent or better of their MIAA-sponsored athletic teams that were named Team GPA honorees.
This is the third-consecutive year that four different conference-sponsored sports had 100 percent of teams achieve the accolade's academic standard: women's cross country, women's soccer, women's swimming and diving, and volleyball. The 2020-21 academic year also marked the fourth-straight year for all volleyball programs to be recognized.
Six athletic departments had double figures of teams honored, with Albion leading the way at 17 honorees. Calvin was second with 16 teams, followed by Kalamazoo and Trine with 14 squads each. Hope and Alma tied-for-fifth with 13 teams programs honored each.
Of the 109 programs honored, 34 boasted a 3.600 team GPA or above for the 2020-21 academic year, with two reaching the 3.800 plateau. The programs surpassing 3.800 in 2020-21 were Trine's women's tennis (3.91) and Trine's women's soccer (3.81).
Ten of the 16 teams (including two co-champions) that won an MIAA Regular-Season Championship title also earned Team GPA Award honors. Ten-of-18 MIAA Championship/Tournament champions were Team GPA Award honorees. Twenty-two of the league's 23 sponsored sports had at least one team named at Team GPA honoree.
The MIAA has presented the Team GPA Award each year since the 1998-99 academic year. To note, both Calvin’s women’s cross country and Hope women’s cross country are the only programs to earn the Team GPA Award 23 consecutive academic years.
