Burnsville, Minn. - Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) Commissioner Erin Lind is proud to announce the seventh annual NSIC Myles Brand All-Academic with Distinction Award winners. The honor, named for the late NCAA President Dr. Myles Brand, is bestowed to senior NSIC student-athletes who have a cumulative grade point average of 3.75 or higher, are exhausting their eligibility and are on track to graduate.  Each student-athlete will be recognized by the NSIC with a certificate of achievement and a wrist watch. Furthermore, each institution is highly encouraged to have these student-athletes be publicly recognized at a home athletic event. A record number 133 student-athletes from the NSIC’s 16 institutions will receive the award in its seventh year, over twenty more than a year ago.

“The Myles Brand All-Academic with Distinction Award is one of the highest honors a student-athlete in the NSIC can achieve. To earn this prestigious honor, one must show a commitment and dedication to both academics and athletics, characteristics in which Dr. Myles Brand emphasized. I am extremely proud of all these student-athletes for their devotion to their universities, the NSIC and to their personal academic and athletic goals. I have no doubt these student-athletes will continue to achieve success in life well beyond the classroom and the competition venues,” said Lind.

Dr. Myles N. Brand, visionary leader, educator and reformer, served as the President of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) from 2003-2009.  He passed away in September 2009 at the age of 67 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.  Brand presided over passage of the most comprehensive academic reform package for intercollegiate athletics in recent history – a package that refocused the attention of student-athletes, coaches and administrators on the education of student-athletes.  Brand also changed the national dialog on college sports to emphasize the educational value of athletics participation and the integration of intercollegiate athletics with the academic mission of higher education.  His impact on Division II ran deep by implementing an identity campaign and a strategic-positioning platform tied to specific divisional attributes. He challenged Division II to continue its game-environment and community-engagement focus, and improve academic success rates.

The NSIC is a 16-team, 17-sport, NCAA Division II conference with teams located in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota.