Academic accolades keep coming in for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Athletics Department with today's announcement of the Southern Conference Honor Roll and the SoCon Commissioner's Medal.  UTC set a school record with 27 student-athletes posting a 4.0 grade point average for the 2017-18 academic year, while 161 made the SoCon Honor Roll, the second-highest total in school history.

"Our student-athletes continue to do an outstanding job in the classroom," stated UTC Vice Chancellor and Director of Athletics Mark Wharton.  "Our academic support staff is very innovative in how they help our student-athletes balance their time between the classroom and competition and you can see those results in this week's announcements."

The Southern Conference athletic directors established the honor roll prior to the 1988-89 athletic year as a way to recognize the league's outstanding student-athletes. The academic honor roll consists of those who participated in varsity sports at member institutions and posted a 3.0 GPA or higher while passing at least 24 hours in two semesters of classes or its equivalent for other academic calendars.

The Mocs also had 45 earn the 2018 SoCon Commissioner's Medal.  Established by the SoCon Executive Committee in 2005, the Commissioner's Medal is a subset of the honor roll that recognizes those who participated in varsity sports at member institutions and posted a 3.8 grade point average or higher, were eligible the entire academic year and were members of the final squad lists. The GPA standard was raised from 3.5 prior to the 2015-16 academic year.

UTC's 27 4.0s were the second-highest number in the league for 2017-18 school year.  It surpasses last year's 23 Mocs with a perfect GPA.  UTC has had at least 20 student-athletes with a 4.0 each of the last four years.