Being a student-athlete is a challenging endeavor, especially in the Pacific West Conference where travel and time away from the classroom can take its toll.

Challenge accepted in a big way by the student-athletes from the conference's 11 schools and the 15 sports that they compete in. Announced today by the conference office, 1,900 of those players made the PacWest All-Academic team, the highest number of honorees in the conference's history.

To qualify, student-athletes have to achieve at least a cumulative 3.0 grade-point average, completed at least two semesters at their institution and participated in regular season competition in one of the 15 PacWest sponsored sports.

The 1,900 that accomplished this tops the previous bests of 1,822 in 2023 and the 1,753 recipients in 2022.

Of that 1,900, an astounding 125 had a perfect 4.0 grade point average in their undergraduate or graduate studies. That tops the previous best of 118 perfect marks in 2022-23. In 2021-22, the-then new record total was 81. For further comparison, in 2020-2021, in what was a record at the time, there were 64 GPA's of 4.0. In 2019, there were 39 PacWest student-athletes that had a perfect 4.0.

The highest total for any men's team was the Azusa Pacific baseball squad, which listed 31 players with a 3.0 GPA or higher. The Cougars were followed closely by the track and field squads from Concordia and Biola with 30. For the women, the Point Loma track and field squad had a total of 45 scholar-athletes. The Sea Lions total is a all-time best for a women's team.

Totaling all sports in which each school competed, Biola led the way with 239 PacWest All-Academic members, followed by Concordia (229). Biola just bettered its previous best of 238, set in 2022-23. 

Here is the list of Academic All-PacWest leaders by sport (+ indicates they were also the conference champion)
Fall Sport Leaders
*Men's Cross Country: Concordia (15)
*Women's Cross Country: Point Loma (18)
*Men's Soccer: Dominican (24)
*Women's Soccer: Dominican (26)
*Volleyball: Dominican (17)
Winter Sport Leaders
*Men's Basketball: Biola, Hawai`i Pacific (11)
*Women's Basketball: Azusa Pacific+, Biola, Point Loma (14)
Spring Sport Leaders
*Baseball: Azusa Pacific (31)
*Men's Golf: Hawai`i Pacific, Hawai`i Hilo+, Chaminade (8)
*Women's Golf: Biola+ (9)
*Softball: Concordia+ (24)
*Men's Tennis: Fresno Pacific (9)
*Women's Tennis: Dominican (12)
*Men's Track and Field: Concordia, Biola (30)
*Women's Track and Field: Point Loma (45)