NFF releases list of 2016 Campbell Trophy semifinalists

IRVING, Texas– The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame (NFF) announced the 156 semifinalists for the 2016 William V. Campbell Trophy, presented by Fidelity Investments and prominently displayed inside its official home at the New York Athletic Club. The award recognizes an individual as the absolute best football scholar-athlete in the nation.

The NFF will announce 12-14 finalists on Nov. 1, and each of them will receive an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship as a member of the NFF National Scholar-Athlete Class, presented by Fidelity Investments. The finalists will travel to New York City for the 59th NFF Annual Awards Dinner on Dec. 6, where their accomplishments will be highlighted in front of one of the most powerful audiences in all of sports. At the event, one member of the class will be declared in dramatic fashion the winner of the 27th William V. Campbell Trophy and have his postgraduate scholarship increased to $25,000.

“These 156 impressive candidates truly represent the scholar-athlete ideal,” said NFF Chairman Archie Manning, whose sons Peyton (Campbell Trophy winner) and Eli were named NFF National Scholar-Athletes in 1997 and 2003, respectively. “It is important for us to showcase their success on the football field, in the classroom and in the community. This year’s semifinalists further illustrate the power of our great sport in developing the next generation of influential leaders.”

Named in honor of the late Bill Campbell, the Campbell Trophy is a 25-pound bronze trophy and increases the amount of the recipient’s grant by $7,000 for a total postgraduate scholarship of $25,000. Campbell, the former chairman of American software company Intuit Inc, was a former player and head coach at Columbia University, not to mention the 2004 recipient of the NFF’s Gold Medal. This year’s postgraduate scholarships will push the program’s all-time distribution to more than $11.1 million.

“The NFF would like to personally congratulate each of the nominees as well as their schools and coaches on their tremendous accomplishments,” said NFF President & CEO Steve Hatchell. “We are extremely proud to highlight each semifinalist’s achievements, showcasing their ability to balance academics and athletics at the highest level. The NFF Awards Committee will have an incredibly difficult task in selecting the finalists from this outstanding group of candidates.”

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.

Launched in 1959, the NFF National Scholar-Athlete Awards program became the first initiative in history to award postgraduate scholarships based on both a player’s academic and athletic accomplishments, and it has recognized 816 outstanding individuals since its inception. The Campbell Trophy, first awarded in 1990, adds to the program’s prestige, having previously honored two Rhodes Scholars, a Rhodes Scholar finalist, two Heisman Trophy winners and five first-round NFL draft picks.

RELATED: Ty Darlington of Oklahoma wins William V. Campbell Trophy

In 2011, the NFF and Fidelity Investments 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 of the NFF National Scholar-Athlete Awards program. In 2014, Fidelity became the presenting sponsor of the Campbell Trophy. Fidelity also helped launch the NFF Faculty Salutes, which recognize 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 presents each of the faculty representatives with a plaque, and Fidelity donates $5,000 for the academic support services at each school with a total of $380,000 distributed from 2011-15.

The past recipients of the William V. Campbell Trophy include: Air Force’s Chris Howard (1990); Florida’s Brad Culpepper (1991); Colorado’s Jim Hansen (1992); Virginia’s Thomas Burns (1993); Nebraska’s Rob Zatechka(1994); Ohio State’s Bobby Hoying (1995); Florida’s Danny Wuerffel (1996); Tennessee’s Peyton Manning(1997); Georgia’s Matt Stinchcomb (1998); Marshall’s Chad Pennington (1999); Nebraska’s Kyle Vanden Bosch (2000); Miami (Fla.)’s Joaquin Gonzalez (2001); Washington University in St. Louis (Mo.)’s Brandon Roberts (2002); Ohio State’s Craig Krenzel (2003); Tennessee’s Michael Munoz (2004); LSU’s Rudy Niswanger(2005); Rutgers’ Brian Leonard (2006); Texas’ Dallas Griffin (2007); California’s Alex Mack (2008); Florida’s Tim Tebow (2009); Texas’ Sam Acho (2010); Army West Point’s Andrew Rodriguez (2011); Alabama’s Barrett Jones(2012); Penn State’s John Urschel (2013); Duke’s David Helton (2014); and Oklahoma’s Ty Darlington (2015).

The candidates for the NCAA are as follows: 

FBS
Player	School
Claude Alexander	Air Force
Matt Haack	Arizona State
Brooks Ellis	Arkansas
Jake Swalley	Arkansas State
Alex Kozan	Auburn
Sam Brunner	Ball State
Sean Wale	Boise State
Taysom Hill	BYU
Justin Holman	Central Florida
Cooper Rush	Central Michigan
Ryan Severson	Colorado
Justin Wain	Connecticut
DeVon Edwards	Duke
Zay Jones	East Carolina
Cole Gardner	Eastern Michigan
Johnny Townsend	Florida
Dillion DeBoer	Florida Atlantic
Jacob Vasquez	Fresno State
Bobby Baker	Georgia State
Tyler McCloskey	Houston
Joe Spencer	Illinois
Jacob Bailey	Indiana
Kane Seeley	Iowa State
Will Davis	Kansas State
Nick Cuthbert	Kent State
Jon Toth	Kentucky
Emanuel Byrd	Marshall
Jake Elliot	Memphis
Justin Vogel	Miami (Fla.)
Michael Jocz	Michigan
Josiah Price	Michigan State
Nathan Noble	Mississippi
Richie Brown	Mississippi State
Sean Culkin	Missouri
Will Worth	Navy
Josh Banderas	Nebraska
Nick Weiler	North Carolina
Jack Tocho	North Carolina State
Fred Scott	North Texas
Drew Hare	Northern Illinois
Joe Burger	Ohio State
Tyler Compton	Old Dominion
Johnny Ragin III	Oregon
Tyler Yazujian	Penn State
Dontez Ford	Pittsburgh
Jake Replogle	Purdue
Darik Dillard	Rice
Quanzell Lambert	Rutgers
Tim Crawley	San Jose State
Perry Orth	South Carolina
Cameron Tom	Southern Mississippi
Dallas Lloyd	Stanford
Cameron MacPherson	Syracuse
Brendan McGowan	Temple
Dylan Wiesman	Tennessee
Justis Nelson	Texas Tech
Dane Evans	Tulsa
Hunter Dimick	Utah
Travis Seefeldt	Utah State
Nicholas Conte	Virginia
Ryan Janvion	Wake Forest
Tyler Orlosky	West Virginia
Marcus Ward	Western Kentucky
Zach Terrell	Western Michigan
Vince Biegel	Wisconsin
Chase Roullier	Wyoming

FCS
Player	School
Trey Salisbury	Austin Paey State
Dakota Girard	Brown
Cary Hess	Bucknell
Jarrett Ozimek	Campbell
Ben Robinson	Charleston Southern
Derrick Craine	Chattanooga
Will Vanvick	The Citadel
Chris Beaschler	Dayton
Jalen Randolph	Delaware
Ernest Mengoni	Delaware State
Avery Pitt	Eastern Kentucky
John Gallagher	Elon
Max Rich	Harvard
Jake Wieczorek	Holy Cross
Hayden Stout	Idaho State
Mark Spelman	Illinois State
Cameron Gibson	Marist
Dylan Cole	Missouri State
Pat DiSalvio	Morehead State
Toby Omli	Murray State
Casey DeAndrade	New Hampshire
Chase Morlock	North Dakota State
Karter Schult	Northern Iowa
Nick Demes	Pennsylvania
Scott Carpenter	Princeton
Andy Smigiera	Robert Morris
Lance Geesey	Saint Francis
Devyn Bryant	San Diego
Nick Mears	South Dakota State
Davion Belk	Stetson
Jake Ryder	Towson
Fred Payne	Western Carolina
Nathan Knuffman	Western Illinois
Hunter Windmuller	William & Mary
Nick Colvin	Wofford
Sebastian Little	Yale

Division II
Player	School
Zach Bernhard	Ashland (Ohio)
Bryan Hardy	Bentley (Mass.)
Ryan McCauley	California of Pa.
Garrett Fugate	Central Missouri
Richie Rice	Colorado School of Mines
Tyler Sullivan	Delta State (Miss.)
Cordell Zalenski	Harding (Ark.)
Chase Krivashei	Humboldt State (Calif.)
Kellen Williams	Kutztown (Pa.)
JC Pawlyk	Malone (Ohio)
Simon Mathiesen	Northwest Missouri State
Deron Washington	Pittsburg State (Kan.)
Anthony Siciliano	Stonehill (Mass.)
Cody Burtscher	Tarleton State (Texas)
Trent Brodbeck	Wayne State (Mich.)
Kyle Keyser	West Chester (Pa.)
Caleb Baird	Wingate (N.C.)

Division III
Player	School
Andrew DiFranco	Albion (Mich.)
Mark Upton	Bates (Maine)
Drew Neuville	Bethel (Minn.)
Davey Hardesty	Bridgewater (Va.)
Brian Khoury	Carnegie Mellon (Pa.)
Soren Pelz-Walsh	Castleton (Vt.)
Will Longthorne	DePauw (Ind.)
Jonathan Naji	Franklin and Marshall (Pa.)
Isaac Robinson	Frostberg State (Md.)
Sean Fenton	Gallaudet (D.C.)
Cordell Boggs	Gettysburg (Pa.)
Ibuki Ogasawara	Grinnell (Iowa)
Conlan Aguirre	Hardin-Simmons (Texas)
Ethan Hoppe	Hendrix (Ark.)
Jack Campbell	Johns Hopkins (Md.)
Joseph Marabito	Kenyon (Ohio)
Sam Mulford	Lake Forest (Ill.)
Austin Mital	Lycoming (Pa.)
Forest Redlin	Macalester (Minn.)
Robert Bradley	Maine Maritime
Zach Rudolf	Manchester (Ind.)
Matt Barnes	Monmouth (Ill.)
Jalen Snyder-Scipio	Moravian (Pa.)
Mason Tomblin	Ohio Wesleyan
Patrick Neville	Redlands (Calif.)
Carter Hanson	Saint John's (Minn.)
Alec Mortillaro	St. John Fisher (N.Y.)
Brad Hood	Trinity (Texas)
Brandon Martuccio	Washington & Jefferson (Pa.)
Branden Lloyd	Wisconsin-Oshkosh
Logan Stoa	Wisconsin-Stout
John Flood	Wisconsin-Whitewater
Todd Ulmer	Wooster (Ohio)