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AASP Career Development Award

The NCAA's Accelerating Academic Success Program (AASP) provides more than $1 million annually to Division I schools with limited financial resources to help support student-athletes' academic achievement and increase graduation rates. As part of this effort, the AASP Career Development Award was created to recognize student-athletes from AASP-eligible institutions who are committed to careers in athletics. This award supports their professional growth through immersive NCAA programming and industry networking opportunities.

Award Benefits

Each year, four student-athletes are selected by the AASP Selection Committee to receive:

  • Recognition on NCAA.org.
  • Travel and registration support to attend two NCAA professional development events:
    • The Career in Sports Forum
    • The AASP Annual Conference

These experiences help student-athletes explore career paths in college athletics while gaining insight from professionals and peers across the NCAA landscape.

Who's Eligible

  • Be enrolled at an AASP eligible institution.
  • Be interested in pursuing a career in athletics.
  • Have completed his or her sophomore year.
  • Have a cumulative GPA of 2.8 or higher.
  • Be eligible for athletics competition.
  • Be available to attend two NCAA professional development events - the Career in Sports Forum and the AASP annual conference.

2025 AASP Career Development Award Winners

Student-athletes (from left) Seth Thomas of Youngstown State, Brynna Mardis of Cleveland State, Nour Gueblaoui of Western Illinois and Alexa Martinos of USC Upstate received the Accelerating Academic Success Program Student-Athlete Career Development Award. (NCAA Photos)

Learn more on the 4 student-athlete AASP honorees.

Important Dates

  • 2026 TBA: Application opens (8 a.m. ET)
  • 2026 TBA: Application closes (5 p.m. ET)
  • 2026 TBA: Career in Sports Forum (Indianapolis, IN)
  • 2026 TBA: AASP Annual Conference

Nominations

Nominations Closed

Student-athletes must be nominated by an athletics administrator or faculty athletics representative.  Each institution may nominate up to two student-athletes; if nominated two, at least one must be male.

Nominated student-athletes will receive an email that directs them to the NCAA Program Hub to complete a profile and submit their application through the "Application" tab.

All application materials must be submitted by the nominated student-athlete.

More information