Selected as the best and brightest from the college gridiron, The National Football Foundation (NFF) & College Hall of Fame announced today the 147 candidates (36 from the FCS) for the 2012 NFF National Scholar-Athlete Awards.

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The awards are presented by Fidelity Investments®, a leading provider of not-for-profit workplace retirement savings plans in higher education.

The 147 nominees also comprise the list of semifinalists for the 2012 William V. Campbell Trophy, endowed by HealthSouth, which recognizes an individual as the absolute best football scholar-athlete in the nation.

“This year’s candidates truly embody the National Football Foundation’s mission of building leaders through football,” said NFF Chairman Archie Manning whose sons Peyton (1997 Campbell Trophy winner) and Eli were named NFF National Scholar-Athletes in 1997 and 2003, respectively. “They are standouts in the classroom and on the field and have become leaders in their respective communities. Each school should take great pride in being represented by such well-rounded young men who will undoubtedly go on to do great things in life.”

Nominated by their schools, which are limited to one nominee each, candidates for the awards must be a senior or graduate student in their final year of eligibility, have a GPA of at least 3.2 on a 4.0 scale, have outstanding football ability as a first team player or significant contributor, and have demonstrated strong leadership and citizenship. The class is selected each year by the NFF Awards Committee, which is comprised of a nationally recognized group of media, College Football Hall of Famers and athletics administrators.

“The NFF would like to personally congratulate each of the nominees for maintaining such high standards throughout their collegiate careers,” said NFF President & CEO Steven J. Hatchell. “We are extremely proud to showcase their achievements, and there is no question that the NFF Awards Committee will have an incredibly difficult task in selecting the final group of honorees from among this esteemed group.”

The NFF Awards Committee will select up to 16 recipients, and the results will be announced via a national press release on Thursday, October 25. Each recipient will receive an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship, and they will vie as finalists for the 2012 William V. Campbell Trophy. Each member of the 2012 National Scholar-Athlete Class will also travel to New York City to be honored December 4 during the 55th NFF Annual Awards Dinner at the Waldorf=Astoria where their accomplishments will be highlighted in front of one of the most powerful audiences in all of sports. One member of the class will also be announced live at the event as the winner of the Campbell Trophy.

Named in honor of Bill Campbell, the chairman of Intuit, former player and head coach at Columbia University and the 2004 recipient of the NFF’s Gold Medal, the award comes with a 25-pound bronze trophy and increases the amount of the recipient’s grant by $7,000 for a total post-graduate scholarship of $25,000. A total distribution of $300,000 in scholarships will be awarded at the NFF Annual Awards Dinner, pushing the program’s all-time distributions to more than $10.1 million.

Launched in 1959, the NFF scholar-athlete program became the first initiative in history to award post-graduate scholarships based on both a player’s academic and athletic accomplishments. The Campbell Trophy, first awarded in 1990, adds to the program’s mystique, having previously honored two Rhodes Scholars, a Rhodes Scholar finalist, two Heisman Trophy winners and five first-round NFL draft picks.

In 2011, the NFF and Fidelity launched a multi-year initiative between the two organizations to celebrate the scholar-athlete ideal and a joint commitment to higher education. As part of the initiative, Fidelity became the first presenting sponsor ever in the 54-year history of the NFF National Scholar-Athlete Awards program. Fidelity also helped launch the NFF Faculty Salutes Initiative, which recognizes the contributions of the faculty athletics representatives at each of the institutions with an NFF National Scholar-Athlete. As part of the initiative, the NFF will present each of the faculty representatives with a plaque and a $5,000 check from Fidelity Investments to support the academic support services for student-athletes at each school.

2012 NFF NATIONAL SCHOLAR-ATHLETE CANDIDATE NOTES

3.57 Average GPA 29 nominees with a 3.80 GPA or better 91 Team Captains 74 All-Conference Picks 21 Academic All-America Selections 14 All-America Selections 50 Nominees from the Football Bowl Subdivision 35 Nominees from the Football Championship Subdivision 12 Nominees from the Division II 41 Nominees from the Division III 9 Nominees from the NAIA 68 Offensive Players 53 Defensive Players 26 Special Teams Players

NFF NATIONAL SCHOLAR-ATHLETE AWARDS CANDIDATES IN THE NCAA I FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP SUBDIVISION

Football Championship Subdivision
Austin Peay State – Wesley Kitts
Brown – Ross Walthall
Bryant – Colin Sullivan
Bucknell – Sam Oyekoya
Butler – Jordan Ridley
Campbell – Sam Eberwein
Colgate – Chris Looney
Dartmouth – Patrick Lahey
Dayton – Bill Petraiuolo
Delaware – Ethan Clark
Drake – Tyler Moorehead
Eastern Kentucky – Patrick Ford
Fordham – Patrick Murray
Georgia State – Akeen Felder
Holy Cross – Tom Mannix
Maine – Brian Harvey
Missouri State – Matt Thayer
Montana – Samuel Gratton
New Hampshire – Chris Zarkoskie
Nicholls State – Kerry Guidry
North Dakota – Ross Brenneman
North Dakota State – Garrett Bruhn
Northern Arizona – Jake Hess
Northern Colorado – Mason Puckett
Northern Iowa – Kyle Bernard
Northwestern State – John Shaughnessy
Old Dominion – Jonathan Plisco
Princeton – Joe Cloud
Rhode Island – Kyle Elliott
Robert Morris – Nolan Nearhoof
Sam Houston State – Eric Fieilo
South Dakota State – Tyrel Kool
Southern Illinois – Joe Okon
UC-Davis – Sean Davies
UT-Chattanooga – Adam Miller

About The National Football Foundation:
Founded in 1947 with early leadership from General Douglas MacArthur, legendary Army coach Earl “Red” Blaik and immortal journalist Grantland Rice, The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame is a non-profit educational organization that runs programs designed to use the power of amateur football in developing scholarship, citizenship and athletic achievement in young people. With 121 chapters and 12,000 members nationwide, NFF programs include the College Football Hall of Fame, the NFF Scholar-Athlete Awards, presented by Fidelity Investments, Play It Smart, the NFF Hampshire Honor Society, the NFF National Scholar-Athlete Alumni Association, and scholarships of more than $1.3 million for college and high school scholar-athletes. The NFF presents the MacArthur Bowl, the William V. Campbell Trophy, endowed by HealthSouth, and releases the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) Standings. NFF corporate partners include the Allstate Sugar Bowl, the BCS, Fidelity Investments, Herff Jones, Liberty Mutual Insurance, NCAA Football, and Under Armour. For more information, please visit www.footballfoundation.org.

About The National College Football Awards Association:
The William V. Campbell Trophy is a member of the National College Football Awards Association (NCFAA). The NCFAA was founded in 1997 as a coalition of the major collegiate football awards to protect, preserve and enhance the integrity, influence and prestige of the game’s predominant awards. The NCFAA encourages professionalism and the highest standards for the administration of its member awards and the selection of their candidates and recipients. For more information, visit the association’s official Web site, www.NCFAA.org.