Kyle Begger (#81) and Jordan Craney (#7) were honored by the NFF Wednesday
Photo by: Kelly Gorham
Five Bobcats Honored by National Football Foundation
5/4/2011 5:53:02 PM | Football
Seniors camp outstanding season with academic honor
Montana State's core group of seniors led the Bobcat football team to the top of the Big Sky Conference on the field last fall. This spring, that group has led the Bobcats to the top of the Football Championship Subdivision in academics.
Five Bobcat seniors earned induction into the National Football Foundation's Hampshire Honor Society, announced by the NFF Wednesday, second-most among NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision schools. Bobcat seniors Kyle Begger (Miles City), Jordan Craney (Pocatello, ID), Dustin O'Connell (Helena), Michael Rider (Billings), and Tanner Ripley (Highwood) earned the prestigious honor.
The Hampshire Honor Society honors college football players from all four-year schools who maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.20 or better. This year, 671 players from 241 schools earned induction, with MSU's five players comprising half of the total number of players from the Big Sky Conference. Players must be starters or important reserves who meet progress toward graduation.
Montana State stands as one of 68 schools with five or more players so honored. Only South Dakota State (eight), North Dakota (five), Holy Cross (five) and Wofford (five) join the Bobcats as the only scholarship-granting FCS schools in the group.
12 – University of Dayton, St. John's University (Minn.)
11 – Central College (Iowa)
10 – Brown University, Wartburg College (Iowa)
9 – Amherst College (Mass.), Harvard University
8 – Columbia University, Gustavus Adolphus College (Minn.), Pomona-Pitzer Colleges (Calif.), South Dakota State University, Washington University (Mo.)
7 – Johns Hopkins University, Lebanon Valley College (Pa.), Nebraska Wesleyan University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (N.Y.), University of Rochester (N.Y.), University of St. Thomas (Minn.)
6 – Bentley University (Mass.), Bucknell University, Brigham Young University, DePaw University (Ind.), Indiana University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Morningside College (Iowa), Ohio State University, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, St. Xavier University (Ill.), University of Pennsylvania, Washington and Jefferson College (Pa.), Yale University
5 – Montana State University, Augsburg College (Minn.), College of Holy Cross, Bethel University (Minn.), East Stroudsburg University (Pa.), Fresno State, North Central College (Ill.), Texas Christian University, University of North Dakota, Wofford College
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