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Sportsmanship Award

 
  • Sportsmanship Award Winners

     
    The Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) established the ACC Sportsmanship Award starting with the 2003-04 academic year as approved by the Athletic Directors and Faculty Athletics Representatives in the February 2003 joint meeting. It was noted that this initiative may assist in promoting the ideals of sportsmanship throughout the Conference. The ACC Sportsmanship Award was comprised of two awards. A Team Sportsmanship Award given to the team that displayed the best sporting behavior or generally conducted themselves with a high degree of character and good sportsmanship, coaches included. Then there was the Sportsmanship School of the Year Award determined by the total number of team sportsmanship award winners.

    After its first year in existence, the SAAC modified the voting requirements to require that at least 85% of an institutions total number of teams participate in the Sportsmanship Award voting in order for the school to be eligible for the Sportsmanship Award. It was also required to award t-shirts to the participants of the winning teams. Starting with the 2006-07 academic year, the FAR's accepted the SAAC proposal to only require signatures of the head coach, a team captain, a team SAAC member and a senior woman administrator or sports supervisor to represent the team's vote.

    During the business session of the fall 2008 SAAC meeting, committee members discussed the award to determine its effectiveness in recognizing sportsmanship within the league. It was determined that the most significant issue was the opportunity to compete against all of the teams during the regular season. There were several representatives that expressed concern with the fact that many sports were not afforded the opportunity to compete against their peers until their respective championship tournaments, which made it difficult to evaluate opposing teams in order to make an honest assessment of whether or not they exhibited sportsmanlike behavior on the playing fields. After thoughtful discussion, the ACC SAAC remained committed to recognizing sportsmanship by proposing a new format/criteria to mirror the NCAA's sportsmanship award which was ultimately approved effective immediately by the Faculty Athletic Representatives, Athletic Director's and the Senior Woman Administrator's during the Fall 2008 joint meeting. As you can read from the new format the two overall sportsmanship award winners, as voted on by the ACC SAAC, will automatically be forwarded on by the ACC Sportsmanship Committee for consideration of the NCAA Sportsmanship Award.

     
    ACC SAAC Sportsmanship Award Process

  • Institutional Student-Athlete Advisory Committees (SAAC's) will work with the campus SAAC advisor to select one male and one female student-athlete with the option of selecting a team in addition to the two nominees.
  • Institutional SAAC's will work with the campus SAAC advisor to forward nominations for the ACC SAAC Sportsmanship Award to the Conference Office liaison by March 31 of each year.
  • The NCAA Sportsmanship Award qualification criteria will be used for all institutional nominees for the ACC SAAC Award.
  • The ACC SAAC Award nominations shall be submitted to the conference office liaison on the NCAA Sportsmanship Award Nomination Form.
  • The nominees must be student-athletes who were eligible during the current academic year.
  • Only one nominee per gender per institution will be allowed. A team may be nominated in addition to the male and female nominees if the institution prefers.
  • Each institutional nominee will be recognized with an ACC SAAC Sportsmanship Award certificate.
  • The ACC SAAC will create a subcommittee of 6 student-athletes to review the nomination forms and recommend four finalists (2 male and 2 female) to the overall ACC SAAC.
  • The ACC SAAC Sportsmanship Award winners will be selected by a majority vote of the ACC SAAC members present at the spring SAAC meeting.
  • The ACC Sportsmanship Award overall winners will receive an engraved award. The award will be presented annually at the ACC Fall Meetings to a representative from the winner's institution.
  • The ACC SAAC Sportsmanship Award winners shall be publicized through Conference media outlets. The SAAC recommends publicizing the 2 ACC winners during the football championship and the basketball tournaments.
  • An award/recognition trophy listing the annual winners shall be maintained at the ACC office.
  • The 2 winners will be forwarded on by the ACC Sportsmanship Committee for consideration of the NCAA Sportsmanship Award.