Baseball earns fifth consecutive ABCA Academic Excellence Award
New Mexico baseball continued one of the nation’s most consistent academic runs Wednesday, earning the 2025-26 American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) Team Academic Excellence Award for the fifth straight season.
The honor came after the Lobos compiled a 3.67 team GPA during the 2025-26 academic year, comfortably surpassing the 3.0 threshold required for the national recognition.
UNM posted a 3.72 GPA during the fall semester before following it with a 3.62 GPA in the spring, extending an impressive streak of academic success under head coach Tod Brown.
The Lobos have now recorded a 3.0 GPA or better in 27 of the last 28 semesters, with the eight highest semester GPAs in program history all coming during Brown’s tenure.
The ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award recognizes high school and collegiate baseball programs that combine success on the diamond with excellence in the classroom. To qualify, programs must maintain at least a 3.0 cumulative GPA while their head coach remains an active member of the ABCA.
More than 800 baseball programs nationwide received the award for the 2025-26 academic year, including nearly 500 collegiate programs and more than 320 high school teams.
The latest recognition continues to highlight the culture Brown has established since taking over the program, one that emphasizes academic achievement alongside athletic development. New Mexico has consistently ranked among the conference’s top academic baseball programs while continuing to produce All-Academic selections and national classroom honors.
Volleyball receives seventh straight AVCA Team Academic Award
The New Mexico volleyball program added another national academic honor to its résumé Thursday, earning the 2026 American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Team Academic Award for the seventh consecutive season.
The Lobos finished the academic year with a 3.82 cumulative team GPA, including a 3.85 GPA during the fall semester and a 3.79 GPA in the spring.
In addition to receiving the Team Academic Award, New Mexico was also named to the AVCA Team Academic Honor Roll, an honor reserved for programs that rank among the top 20 percent academically within their respective divisions.
The AVCA Team Academic Award recognizes volleyball programs that maintain a yearlong team GPA of at least 3.3 on a 4.0 scale, with 1,432 collegiate and high school programs earning the distinction during the 2025-26 academic year.
The back-to-back honors reinforce the volleyball program’s longstanding commitment to academic excellence. By also earning a place on the Honor Roll, the Lobos demonstrated that they not only met the national standard but ranked among the country’s top-performing programs in the classroom.
Together, the baseball and volleyball honors continue a trend across New Mexico athletics, where teams have consistently paired competitive success with outstanding academic performance. The latest awards add to an already impressive summer of recognition for Lobo student-athletes and programs, underscoring the department’s emphasis on achievement both on the field and in the classroom.
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