TOWSON, Md. -- Earlier this month, Devon Beitzel earned his second straight academic all-district nomination.
Now, he has converted that honor into something even more impressive -- a selection to the 2010 CoSIDA ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America Men's Basketball team.
Beitzel finished fall semester 2009 with a 3.72 grade-point average in Finance & Accounting and is the second leading scorer (14.5 points per game) for a Northern Colorado men's basketball team that is in the midst of one of the best seasons in school history.
He was recognized for that outstanding work in early February by being named to the CoSIDA District 7 all-acaemic team and today he was named to the Academic All-America third team, giving him distinction as one the finest men's basketball student-athletes in the entire country.
He is Northern Colorado's first men's basketball academic all-American since Derek Chaney (1989-94) was named to the third team in 1994.
He is joined on the third team by Wichita State's Graham Hatch, Butler's Gordon Hayward, Brown's Matthew Mullery and Western Carolina's Jake Robinson. Beitzel is the only Big Sky student-athlete on the first, second or third teams.
Kansas center Cole Aldrich headlines the first team and is this year's Academic All-American of the Year.
To be eligible for Academic All-America honors, a student-athlete must be a varsity starter or key reserve, maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.30 on a scale of 4.00, have reached sophomore athletic and academic standings at his/her current institution and be nominated by his/her sports information director.
Since the program’s inception in 1952, CoSIDA has bestowed Academic All-America honors on more than 15,000 student-athletes in Divisions I, II, III and NAIA, covering all NCAA championship sports.