SCAC Announces Fall 2024 SAAC Team Sportsmanship Awards
Seven Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference fall sports programs were recognized by the league as recipients of the SCAC Student-Athlete Advisory Committee Team Sportsmanship award in balloting conducted following each sport's respective season.
SUWANEE, Ga. - Seven Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference fall sports programs were recognized by the league as recipients of the SCAC Student-Athlete Advisory Committee Team Sportsmanship award in balloting conducted following each sport's respective season.
The SCAC Student-Athlete Advisory Committee instituted the award prior to the 2016-17 academic year to honor the team that best portrays good sportsmanship and fair play from the players and coaches during the season. The fall awards are presented in men's and women's cross country, football, men's and women's soccer and volleyball.
Four of the seven programs receiving recognition this fall are now multi-time Team Sportsmanship honorees, with the Trinity University women's cross-country program, Texas Lutheran University football program and Centenary College women's soccer program earning the distinction for the first time in school history.
In men's cross country, Southwestern University earned the team sportsmanship honor, followed by Colorado College and St. Thomas finishing tied for second. This year marks the second time the Pirates' men's cross-country program has earned the award, previously earning recognition in 2022. On the women's side, Trinity, who was honored for the first time in program history, and Southwestern University shared the honor. For the Pirates this marks the second time they have secured at least a share of the top honor, previously being recognized in 2022. Southwestern is the third program is SCAC history joining Austin College and Colorado College to have both genders in the sport of cross country to be recognized multiple times by their peers. The CC Tigers finished third in the voting in 2025.
Texas Lutheran earned the SCAC SAAC Team Sportsmanship award in football for the first time in program history. This is just the second time the award has been handed out in the sport of football with the return of the sport for the first time since the 2016 season. Southwestern was the winner of the inaugural year and only previous time it has been handed out. McMurry and Centenary rounded out the top three in the voting process in 2025.
In men's soccer, Colorado College took top sportsmanship honors for the second consecutive year, followed by Dallas, Schreiner and Texas Lutheran as the latter two tied for third in the selection process. CC is just the second program to win the honor three times (2021, 2023) as well in back-to-back seasons. The Tigers join Schreiner who won the award in back-to-back seasons in 2016 and 2017 and won for a third time during the 2020-21 COVID season.
In women's soccer, Centenary secured the award for the first time in program history. The Ladies were followed in the voting by Schreiner and Ozarks.
And in the sport of volleyball, Schreiner received top honors for the second time in program history. The Mountaineers previously won the award in 2016 and are now the third program in SCAC history to secure multiple SCAC SAAC Team Sportsmanship awards, joining Centenary (2017, 2018) and Texas Lutheran (2022, 2023). Colorado College took home second, while Trinity and Texas Lutheran tied for third.
Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference
Fall 2024 Team Sportsmanship Award Winners
Men's Cross Country: Southwestern University
Women's Cross Country: Southwestern University, Trinity University
Football: Texas Lutheran University
Men's Soccer: Colorado College
Women's Soccer: Centenary College
Volleyball: Schreiner University
The awards were voted on by each member institution's SAAC, with each individual group ranking the top three teams in each sport. First-place selections were awarded five points, second place earned three points and third place earned one point. Points were then totaled to select the conference's overall winner.
