On Wednesday, August 3, the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) announced the 106 teams that received the MIAA Team GPA Award for the 2021-22 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.
All eight of Saint Mary's College's MIAA-sponsored sports eclipsed the standard for the Team GPA Award. In addition, all of Olivet College's MIAA-sponsored women's programs received the Team GPA Award. Another five MIAA member institutions - Albion, Calvin, Hope, Kalamazoo, and Trine - had 50 percent or better of their MIAA-sponsored athletic teams that were named Team GPA honorees.
This is the fourth-consecutive year that at least three different conference-sponsored sports had 100 percent of teams achieve the accolade's academic standard: women's cross country, women's soccer, softball.
Six athletic departments had double figures of teams honored, with Hope leading the way at 17 honorees. Calvin was second with 16 teams, followed by Kalamazoo with 15 programs. Albion and Trine tied-for-fourth with 12 programs earning the Team GPA Award. Olivet is represented by 10 teams on the academic list, followed by Alma with nine teams, Saint Mary's with eight, and Adrian with seven programs.
Of the 106 programs honored, 26 boasted a 3.600 team GPA or above for the 2021-22 academic year, with two reaching the 3.800 plateau. The programs surpassing 3.800 in 2021-22 were Trine's women's cross country squad (3.89) and Trine's women's tennis team (3.88).
Ten of the 17 teams (including one co-champion) that won an MIAA Regular-Season Championship title also earned Team GPA Award honors. Sixteen-of-21 MIAA Championship/Tournament champions were Team GPA Award honorees. Twenty-two of the league's 23 sponsored sports had at least one team named a 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 24 consecutive academic years.
