The Elite 90 Award or more formally The Elite 90 Academic Recognition Award Program, originally the Elite 88 Award and later the Elite 89 Award, is an award by the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...

(NCAA) recognizing the

student athlete A student is a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution. In the United Kingdom and most commonwealth countries, a "student" attends a secondary school or higher (e.g., college or university); those in primary or element ...

with the highest cumulative grade-point average who has reached the competition at the finals site for each of the NCAA's 90 men's and women's championships across its three divisions ( Division I, Division II, Division III). Students are eligible if they have achieved at least a sophomore in academic and athletic standing and if he or she is in at least the second year of competition (in any sport) at his or her current institution. A student in the first season of play at a new institution is eligible for the award if he or she sat out the previous season due to NCAA transfer rules while enrolled continuously at the current institution. The student athlete must be on the active roster, and in sports that have limits on squad size, must be a member of the designated squad size at the championship site. Grade point averages are determined using a straight grading scale to ensure consistency among institutions. Additionally, only credits earned at the student's current institution are counted toward determining GPA; transfer and AP credits are specifically excluded. Graduate students who still have athletic eligibility may receive the award, but only undergraduate GPA is considered. In the event of a tie, completed credits is the official tiebreaker. In sports such as

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

and

cross country running Cross country running is a sport in which teams and individuals run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain such as dirt or grass. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open cou ...

an individual who qualifies for the individual championship although his or her team is not competing will be eligible for the award. Multi-sport athletes are only allowed to win one award per academic year, even if they would qualify for the award in more than one sport. The award was established as the Elite 88 Award during the 2009–10 academic year. It became the Elite 89 during the 2011–12 academic year with the creation of the NCAA Men's Division III Volleyball Championship, and changed again to Elite 90 in 2015–16 with the establishment of the

NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship The NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship is an NCAA-sanctioned tournament to determine the national champions of collegiate women's beach volleyball. It is a National Collegiate Championship featuring teams from Division I, Division II and Div ...

. The NCAA owns the

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from ot ...

to the terms "Elite 89" and "Elite 90". Two groups of NCAA student-athletes are not eligible for the Elite 90 Award: * Participants in what the NCAA classifies as "emerging sports" for women, currently equestrianism, rugby union, and triathlon. These sports are recognized by the NCAA, but do not yet have fully sanctioned status. Beach volleyball had been an "emerging sport" before becoming a fully sanctioned championship sport in 2015–16. * Players in

Division I FBS The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, is the highest level of college football in the United States. The FBS consists of the largest schools in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). ...

football. The NCAA has never sponsored an official FBS national championship. NCAA Elite 90 Eligible Sports ;Notes * "National Collegiate" is the official NCAA designation for championships that are open to schools from multiple NCAA divisions. In most cases, the National Collegiate Championship is the only championship awarded in that sport. However, two sports—women's ice hockey and men's volleyball—have National Collegiate and Division III championships. By contrast, the men's ice hockey championships are designated as "Division I" and "Division III", although Division II schools can and do compete in that sport's Division I championship as Division I members. * The list includes only championships in fully sanctioned NCAA sports.

Notes

External links

Official web listing
{{Student athlete Awards established in 2009 College sports trophies and awards in the United States Student athlete awards in the United States NCAA awards