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DALLAS, TEXAS – Campbell senior running back Kurt Odom has been named a semifinalist for the National Football Foundation's 2013 NFF National Scholar-Athlete Awards, presented by Fidelity Investments.
Odom is one of a record 170 semifinalists for the honor, selected as the best and brightest from the college gridiron, and announced today by the NFF.
The nominees also comprise the list of semifinalists for the 2013 William V. Campbell Trophy, endowed by HealthSouth, which recognizes an individual as the absolute best scholar-athlete in the nation. The 170 semifinalists represent the most ever since 2006 when the NFF increased the nomination standards to require a minimum cumulative 3.2 GPA.
A Robbinsville, N.C. native, Odom owns 196 yards and two touchdowns rushing in four games so far this season, averaging 6.5 yards per carry during his final campaign. Odom has also caught seven passes for 54 yards, and rushed 15 times for a season-high 91 yards last Saturday at Valparaiso.
The CU running back was selected to the FCS Athletics Directors Association Academic All-Star team and the College Sports Journal's FCS All-Academic squad last season, also earning his second CoSIDA Academic All-District 3 accolade in 2012. Odom was also named First Team Academic All-PFL for the second time and to the league's Academic Honor Roll for the third consecutive season.
Nominated by their schools, which are limited to one nominee each, candidates for the awards must be a senior or graduate student in their final year of eligibility, have a GPA of at least 3.2 on a 4.0 scale, have outstanding football ability as a first team player or significant contributor, and have demonstrated strong leadership and citizenship. The class is selected each year by the NFF Awards Committee, which is comprised of a nationally recognized group of media, College Football Hall of Famers and athletics administrators.
The NFF Awards Committee will select up to 16 recipients, and the results will be announced via a national press release on Thursday, October 31. Each recipient will receive an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship, and they will vie as finalists for the 2013 William V. Campbell Trophy. Each member of the 2013 National Scholar-Athlete Class will also travel to New York City to be honored Dec. 10 during the 56th NFF Annual Awards Dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria where their accomplishments will be highlighted in front of one of the most powerful audiences in all of sports. One member of the class will also be announced live at the event as the winner of the William V. Campbell Trophy.
Named in honor of Bill Campbell, the chairman of Intuit, former player and head coach at Columbia University and the 2004 recipient of the NFF's Gold Medal, the award comes with a 25-pound bronze trophy and increases the amount of the recipient's grant by $7,000 for a total post-graduate scholarship of $25,000. A total distribution of $300,000 in scholarships will be awarded at the NFF Annual Awards Dinner, pushing the program's all-time distributions to more than $10.4 million.
Last season, placekicker Sam Eberwein became Campbell's first NFF National Scholar-Athlete Awards semifinalist.
