KANSAS — The Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference (KCAC) is proud to announce that over 690 student-athletes competing in athletics in the conference in the Spring 2026 season earned the Scholar-Athlete distinction. This honor recognizes excellence in the classroom by KCAC member student-athletes who are sophomores or above in academic standing at the beginning of the semester in which they compete, and carry a minimum 3.25 cumulative GPA at the beginning of the semester in which they compete.
Students must appear on the eligibility certificate for the sport and have attended one full year at the KCAC institution to be eligible.
Out of the Spring 2026 sports, baseball led the way with 187 honorees, followed by softball with 139 scholar-athletes. Women's outdoor track and field (93 honorees) and men's outdoor track & field (70) were next, followed by women's and men's tennis (55 and 53 honorees, respectively). Rounding out the list of spring sports were women's flag football (41 scholar-athletes), men's golf (33), and women's golf (21).
Below is the number of honorees for each of the KCAC's fourteen full member institutions:
- Kansas Wesleyan University: 105
- Friends University: 71
- University of Saint Mary: 70
- Evangel University: 64
- Ottawa University: 50
- York University: 45
- Bethany College: 42
- Oklahoma Wesleyan University: 37
- Bethel College: 36
- Southwestern College: 35
- Tabor College: 32
- McPherson College: 30
- Avila University: 29
- Sterling College: 27
To view the full list of KCAC Scholar-Athletes, broken down by both sport and institution, click
here.
The following Spire athletes have earned this honor:
Men's Tennis:
Women's Tennis:
Flag Football:
Baseball:
Softball:
Women's T&F:
Men's T&F:
In addition to over 690 student-athletes earning this honor at the conference level, 466 student-athletes from the KCAC competing in spring sports earned the NAIA Scholar-Athlete distinction. To qualify as an NAIA Scholar-Athlete, students must maintain a minimum cumulative grade point average (GPA) of 3.5 on a 4.0 scale, appear on the eligibility certificate for their sport, and have attended their institution for at least one full year.
Proudly, the KCAC ranked sixth among all 20 NAIA conferences in total honorees.
For more about the NAIA Scholar-Athlete honor, including the full list of honorees, click
here.
