July 15, 2008

ATLANTA – The Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) announced its winners for the 2007-08 Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll Monday and the University of Northern Colorado sported one of the top 10 grade point averages in Division I. This award, given in NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III, NAIA and Junior College/Community College, awards teams throughout the nation that carry the highest grade point averages (GPA) for the entire season based on the nomination submitted by WBCA-member head coaches.

GPAs are calculated by dividing the total number of quality points earned by each student-athlete on an institution's roster in the given academic terms by the total number of hours earned by the team. The GPAs are rounded to the nearest thousandth of a point.

“Academics is something we focused on all year,” said head coach Jaime White. “Having the highest gpa of all the athletics teams at Northern Colorado was a goal of ours. The team is really buying into succeeding in the classroom as well. They attended study hall and put an emphasis on their grades and getting higher marks.”

The Bears are one of three Big Sky Conference teams ranked in the top 11 in the nation, as they averaged a 3.414 GPA. Eastern Washington came in fourth with a 3.584 and Montana State was 11^th with a 3.392. Northern Colorado finished the 2007-08 season with a mark of 14-16 and advanced to the Big Sky Conference quarterfinals in its first year of eligibility in the league.

The complete list of top 25 teams follows:

	School	2007-08 Head Coach	Team GPA
1	South Dakota State University	Aaron Johnston	3.669
2	Kansas State University	Debbie Patterson	3.652
3	Indiana State University	Jim Wiedie	3.591
4	Eastern Washington University	Wendy Schuller	3.584
5	Western Carolina University	Kellie J. Harper	3.543
6	University of Northern Iowa	Tanya E. Warren	3.535
7	Eastern Illinois University	Brady Sallee	3.475
8	Manhattan College	Myndi Hill	3.430
9	Utah Valley	Cathy Nixon	3.419
10	University of Northern Colorado	Jaime White	3.414
11	Montana State University	Tricia L. Binford	3.392
12	Southern Illinois University	Dana Eikenberg	3.371
13	Niagara University	Kendra Faustin	3.361
14	Liberty University	Carey Green	3.354
15	Saint Bonaventure University	Jim Crowley	3.352
16	University of Maine	Cindy Blodgett	3.345
17	American University	Melissa McFerrin	3.342
T18	Canisius College	Terrence E. Zeh	3.326
T18	North Dakota State University	Amy Ruley	3.326
20	Oakland University	Beckie Francis	3.312
21	Dartmouth College	Christina Wielgus	3.311
22	University of New Mexico	Don Flanagan	3.308
23	Wichita State University	Jane Albright	3.289
24	Valparaiso University	Keith Freeman	3.286
25	Columbia University	Paul E. Nixon	3.278