July 11, 2008

Complete Release and List of Winners in PDF Format

IRVING, Texas - Rice University has earned the Conference USA Institutional Excellence Award for the third straight year, as announced by Commissioner Britton Banowsky today.

The Institutional Excellence Award is given to the C-USA institution with the highest grade point average during the current academic year for all student-athletes in conference sponsored sports. Rice student-athletes combined for an annual grade point average of 3.014, with five teams representing their respective sport's top GPA. East Carolina produced four different teams with the highest GPA.

The Sport Academic Award is given to the team in each conference-sponsored sport with the highest grade point average for the current academic year. The Memphis women's cross country team posted the highest annual GPA of any sport at 3.713. Tulsa claimed the men's soccer academic award, while also sweeping the regular season and tournament championship titles. A complete list of all the Sport Academic award honorees is attached.