For the first time in program history, the Nevada football team has earned the American Football Coaches Association’s Academic Achievement Award, which is presented by the Touchdown Club of Memphis.

“This award recognizes all of the hard work put in by our football student-athletes over the past four years,” said Andrew Caudill, Assistant Athletics Director for Academics. “To go from one of the worst academic programs in the nation to one of the best is a testament of the commitment to student success by our entire university community. I am thankful to all of the faculty and staff at the University of Nevada, and I am blessed to have had the opportunity to work with so many great young men in the football program.”

The Wolf Pack is one of five teams to share the award, along with Clemson, Pittsburgh, Kansas State and Oklahoma State. All five schools recorded a perfect 1,000 for their single-year Academic Progress Rate (APR) for 2016-17. That same year, Nevada saw 28 of its student-athletes earn Academic All-Mountain West honors and 11 were named MW Scholar-Athletes. The award will be presented to the head coach at each institution during the Honors Luncheon on Monday, Jan. 7, at the 2019 AFCA Convention in San Antonio, Texas.

This is the first year that the NCAA’s single-year APR has been used to select a winner. The APR holds institutions accountable for the academic progress of their student-athletes through a team-based metric that accounts for the eligibility and retention of each student-athlete for each academic term.

Each student-athlete receiving athletically related financial aid earns one point for staying in school and one point for being academically eligible. A team’s total points are divided by points possible and then multiplied by 1,000 to equal the team’s Academic Progress Rate.

From 1981 to 2007, the award was presented based on a formula used by the College Football Association and the AFCA. From 2008 to 2017, the AFCA used the NCAA’s Graduation Success Rate to select a winner.