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MSU Baseball Collects ABCA Team Academic Excellence Accolades For Eighth-Consecutive Year
7/26/2024 11:56:00 AM | Baseball
Michigan State only B1G team to earn honor in each of the last eight seasons.
EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Michigan State baseball was recognized with the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) Team Academic Excellence Award for the eighth year in a row.
The American Baseball Coaches Association recognized over 800 member college and high school programs from across the country with the 2023-24 ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award, which is presented by Sports Attack. Teams from every level of college and high school baseball were honored with this year's award, which highlights programs coached by ABCA members that posted a GPA of 3.0 or above on a 4.0 scale for the entire 2023-24 academic year.
Nearly 350 high school programs and more than 470 collegiate programs were recognized with this year's award.
"It's an honor to earn the ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award for the eighth year in a row," MSU head coach Jake Boss Jr. said. "We're extremely proud to be the only Big Ten team to have won this award the last eight years. Our players are dedicated to putting in the hard work to fully define the term student-athlete, with everything that goes into that in the class-room and on the baseball field. Once again, it's due in large part to our academic advisor Melissa Tallant, she gets the most out of our guys, and we're very appreciative of her hard work with them."
MSU registered a cumulative 3.399 GPA for the 2023-24 academic year.
"I consider myself privileged to work with this tremendous group of student-athletes and coaches," associate director of MSU Student-Athlete Support Services Melissa Tallant said. "It has become a sense of pride for these baseball players to earn this honor and they work very hard to make sure that they're not the group that the streak stops with, so they it's a good motivator for them to commit to working hard in the classroom to reach that success. I'm proud of them for continuing to be diligent in reaching this goal for an eighth-straight year."
Michigan State was one of seven Big Ten teams on the 130-team Division I list, marking the third-straight year for posting the most B1G teams in the last nine years of the ABCA's records, with MSU the only team to have been on each of the last eight years. There were not any B1G teams in 2016, before the Spartans were joined by Minnesota in 2017, then MSU was the lone conference team in both 2018 and 2019. Illinois and Ohio State joined MSU on the 2020 season list, then Michigan State was joined by Illinois and Rutgers for the 2020-21 season. The 2022 season saw six teams, with Michigan State joined by Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Purdue and Rutgers, before the 2023 season's six teams with Michigan State being joined by Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Northwestern and Purdue. This season, MSU is joined by Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio State and Purdue.
B1G Teams Receiving ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award
2015-16 - None
2016-17 - Michigan State, Minnesota
2017-18 - Michigan State
2018-19 - Michigan State
2019-20 - Michigan State, Illinois, Ohio State
2020-21 - Michigan State, Illinois, Rutgers
2021-22 - Michigan State, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Purdue, Rutgers
2022-23 - Michigan State, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Northwestern, PurdueÂ
2023-24 - Michigan State, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio State, Purdue
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The American Baseball Coaches Association recognized over 800 member college and high school programs from across the country with the 2023-24 ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award, which is presented by Sports Attack. Teams from every level of college and high school baseball were honored with this year's award, which highlights programs coached by ABCA members that posted a GPA of 3.0 or above on a 4.0 scale for the entire 2023-24 academic year.
Nearly 350 high school programs and more than 470 collegiate programs were recognized with this year's award.
"It's an honor to earn the ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award for the eighth year in a row," MSU head coach Jake Boss Jr. said. "We're extremely proud to be the only Big Ten team to have won this award the last eight years. Our players are dedicated to putting in the hard work to fully define the term student-athlete, with everything that goes into that in the class-room and on the baseball field. Once again, it's due in large part to our academic advisor Melissa Tallant, she gets the most out of our guys, and we're very appreciative of her hard work with them."
MSU registered a cumulative 3.399 GPA for the 2023-24 academic year.
"I consider myself privileged to work with this tremendous group of student-athletes and coaches," associate director of MSU Student-Athlete Support Services Melissa Tallant said. "It has become a sense of pride for these baseball players to earn this honor and they work very hard to make sure that they're not the group that the streak stops with, so they it's a good motivator for them to commit to working hard in the classroom to reach that success. I'm proud of them for continuing to be diligent in reaching this goal for an eighth-straight year."
Michigan State was one of seven Big Ten teams on the 130-team Division I list, marking the third-straight year for posting the most B1G teams in the last nine years of the ABCA's records, with MSU the only team to have been on each of the last eight years. There were not any B1G teams in 2016, before the Spartans were joined by Minnesota in 2017, then MSU was the lone conference team in both 2018 and 2019. Illinois and Ohio State joined MSU on the 2020 season list, then Michigan State was joined by Illinois and Rutgers for the 2020-21 season. The 2022 season saw six teams, with Michigan State joined by Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Purdue and Rutgers, before the 2023 season's six teams with Michigan State being joined by Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Northwestern and Purdue. This season, MSU is joined by Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio State and Purdue.
B1G Teams Receiving ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award
2015-16 - None
2016-17 - Michigan State, Minnesota
2017-18 - Michigan State
2018-19 - Michigan State
2019-20 - Michigan State, Illinois, Ohio State
2020-21 - Michigan State, Illinois, Rutgers
2021-22 - Michigan State, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Purdue, Rutgers
2022-23 - Michigan State, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Northwestern, PurdueÂ
2023-24 - Michigan State, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio State, Purdue
Â
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