Oct. 6, 2006

By Jeff Honza
www.SIUSalukis.com

CARBONDALE, Ill.-For the second-straight year, Southern Illinois University has captured the Gateway Football Conference All-Academic Award, as announced by the league office this week.

It will be presented Saturday in Carbondale during SIU's Homecoming game against Western Illinois.

The All-Academic Award was established in 2004 to help bring attention to institutional academic excellence.

It is based on the average student-athlete grade point average for the academic year. The GPAs are calculated for all student-athletes in the Gateway, who compete, practice or receive athletic aid during the academic year.

SIU and WIU shared the initial award for the 2004-05 academic season. The current award for the Salukis is based on accomplishments during the 2005-06 academic year.

Five Saluki football players garnered CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District V honors in 2005. No other league school had more than two players earn academic all-district recognition. As a conference, the Gateway had a total of 11 academic all-district honorees a year ago.

SIU student-athletes represented on the all-district squad last year included QB Joel Sambursky, FB J.T. Wise, OT Andrew Kernes, LB Tony Rinella and CB Brad Brachear.

The Salukis also placed eight (of 33 total) student-athletes on the Gateway's 2005 All-Academic Team. Those selections were more than any other league school.

In addition, SIU had nine student-athletes -- matching two other Gateway schools for the league-high -- earn the conference's Commissioner's Academic Excellence Award, which recognizes students who have achieved a minimum 3.20 grade point average in each of the previous two semesters.