Student-Athlete Advisory Committees throughout Division I will have the opportunity to be honored by the national SAAC with a new Award of Excellence.

The award, which will be announced through the SAAC Speaks newsletter, will recognize the contributions of student-athletes on campuses nationwide.

Recognizing SAACs for their good work is a primary goal of the award, but SAAC Chair Matt Baysinger of Kansas said the group hopes the honor serves another purpose– to increase awareness about the national SAAC.

“We want to recognize groups who deserve it and also help student-athletes realize that the SAAC doesn’t just stop at your campus or your conference,” Baysinger said. “It’s a much larger thing.”

The award will honor groups for their work in several categories: progress and growth, community service/outreach, sportsmanship initiatives, teamwork, originality and leadership. Groups can be selected based on any single category or a combination of categories.

The national group wanted to recognize different kinds of success without promoting one type over another.

“Say Tech University has a great relationship with its student government and State University does a lot of sportsmanship,” Baysinger said. “How do you judge which is better? They are both doing great things, so they will both have the opportunity to win the award. And we don’t want people to change what they are trying to focus on to win the award. We want to recognize groups for what they are already doing.”

The group hopes to include applications with the next SAAC Speaks newsletter and begin recognizing winners in the next issue. Winners will be selected by national SAAC representatives. The Division I Leadership Council endorsed the effort at its March meeting.

For now, the SAAC plans to stick with recognizing just one group per publication of SAAC Speaks, though members will re-evaluate the process after it begins.

“We hope every school applies for it every time,” Baysinger said.  “If you keep the competition high, it will be something special and coveted.”