55 Gators make first-year SEC Academic Honor Roll

You may have heard about the O’Bannon trial. Ed O’Bannon v. the NCAA In a case where the O’Bannon team is claiming that the NCAA is wrongfully profiting off of the images and likenesses of student-athletes with the athletes seeing none of the profit.

The NCAA is arguing — quite unsuccessfully in court — that the athletes are compensated in ways of scholarships that things like cost of tuition, room and board, food and other benefits given to college athletes.

However, while the NCAA is floundering in court to prove their point, the University of Florida set a good example of the definition of student-athlete.

On Friday, SEC Commissioner Mike Slive released the names of the SEC First-Year Academic Honor Roll and 55 student-athletes at the University of Florida were recognized.

To make the honor role, athletes need to meet four criteria.

1) Have a GPA of 3.00 for either the preceding academic year or have a cumulative GPA of 3.00 or above at the nominating institution;
2) Be on scholarship, a letter-winner.
3) Have completed 24 semester hours of non-remedial credit at the nominating institution; and
4) Have been a member of the varsity team for the sport’s entire NCAA Championship segment.

The 55 players that were added to the list on Friday gave Florida an astonishing 239 student-athletes to earn academic honors in the calendar year (53 on fall list; 59 winter, 72 on spring and 55 on the First-Year Honor Roll.)

Included on the list of 55 freshmen were seven football players — Caleb Brantley, Jarrad Davis, Vernon Hargreaves III, Antonio Riles, Jordan Sherit, Johnny Townsend and Nick Washington.

A complete list of all 55 student-athletes can be found here.

Nick de la Torre
A South Florida native, Nick developed a passion for all things sports at a very young age. His love for baseball was solidified when he saw Al Leiter’s no-hitter for the Marlins live in May of 1996. He was able to play baseball in college but quickly realized there isn’t much of a market for short, slow outfielders that hit around the Mendoza line. Wanting to continue with sports in some capacity he studied journalism at the University of Central Florida. Nick got his first start in the business as an intern for a website covering all things related to the NFL draft before spending two seasons covering the Florida football team at Bleacher Report. That job led him to GatorCountry. When he isn’t covering Gator sports, Nick enjoys hitting way too many shots on the golf course, attempting to keep up with his favorite t.v. shows and watching the Heat, Dolphins and Marlins. Follow him on twitter @NickdelatorreGC