DALLAS – The National Collegiate Wrestling Association has awarded 10 of its Division I programs as All-Academic Teams for the 2017-18 season. The 10 programs honored have the highest composite grade-point averages among the association’s 34 Division I members.

Brigham Young led the way with a cumulative 3.734 GPA, compiled from a formula that took the top eight GPA’s from each team and averaged them to calculate the team GPA. Central Florida ranked second just one-tenth of a point behind at 3.667. Grays Harbor College of Washington took third at 3.533, with The Apprentice School (fourth, 3.505) and Liberty (fifth, 3.486) rounding out the top five. Grand Valley State, Washington State, Queens University of Charlotte, Penn State-Fayette and Alfred State College were also honored as an All-Academic Team.

Six of the NCWA’s nine conferences had representation on the All-Academic Team, including three from the Mid-Atlantic Conference. The 10 members of the 2017-18 NCWA All-Academic Team are:

(Rank) School (Conference) – Avg. GPA
(1) Brigham Young (West Coast) – 3.734
(2) Central Florida (Southeast) – 3.667
(3) Grays Harbor College (Northwest) – 3.533
(4) The Apprentice School (Mid-Atlantic) – 3.505
(5) Liberty (Mid-Atlantic) – 3.486
(6) Grand Valley State (Great Lakes) – 3.315
(7) Washington State (Northwest) – 3.280
(8) Queens Univ. of Charlotte (Mid-Atlantic) – 3.096
(9) Penn State-Fayette (Mideast) – 3.049
(10) Alfred State College (Northeast) – 3.028

There was a strong correlation between the classroom success of these NCWA teams and their placings at this season’s national championships. Six of the top 10 teams earning All-Academic honors also placed in the top 10 at the NCWA Championships, including each of the top five in national champion Liberty (fifth in GPA), runner-up Apprentice (fourth in GPA), UCF (second in GPA, third at nationals), BYU (GPA champion and fourth at nationals) and Queens University of Charlotte (eighth in GPA, fifth place at nationals). Grays Harbor (third in GPA, 10^th at nationals) was the other program to place in the top 10 in both rankings.

The NCWA will release its individual members on its All-Academic Team next week.

For more information on the NCWA and its member schools, please go to ncwa.net.