University of Albany Football's Eric LaPorta Named Semifinalist For NFF Campbell Trophy

DALLAS – Eric LaPorta, a senior center on the University at Albany football team, has been named a semifinalist for the prestigious William V. Campbell Trophy, announced by the National Football Foundation Wednesday. LaPorta is one of 170 candidates vying for the award honoring the nation’s top scholar-athlete. 

LaPorta, a native of Yorktown Heights, N.Y., is a three-year starter for the Great Danes and 2013 team captain. After beginning his career as a walk-on, LaPorta was named to the 2012 Capital One Academic All-District Football Team and helped UAlbany win back-to-back Northeast Conference titles.

As a dual major in criminal justice and history, LaPorta graduated magna cum laude with a 3.57 cumulative grade point average and is currently enrolled in UAlbany’s Master of Science In Secondary Education program for social studies with a 3.65 GPA.

LaPorta is one of three athletes from the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) in the semifinalist stage.

Nominated by their schools, which are limited to one nominee each, candidates for the awards must be a senior or graduate student in their final year of eligibility, have a GPA of at least 3.2 on a 4.0 scale, have outstanding football ability as a first team player or significant contributor, and have demonstrated strong leadership and citizenship. The class is selected each year by the NFF Awards Committee, which is comprised of a nationally recognized group of media, College Football Hall of Famers and athletics administrators.

“The NFF would like to personally congratulate each of the nominees as well as their schools on this tremendous honor,” said NFF President & CEO Steven J. Hatchell. “We are extremely proud to highlight each semifinalist’s achievements, which show that football players can balance between academics and athletics at the highest level. There is no question that the NFF Awards Committee will have an incredibly difficult task in selecting the finalists from among this esteemed group.”

The NFF Awards Committee will select up to 16 recipients, and the results will be announced via a national press release on Thursday, October 31. Each recipient will receive an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship, and they will vie as finalists for the 2013 William V. Campbell Trophy. Each member of the 2013 National Scholar-Athlete Class will also travel to New York City to be honored Dec. 10 during the 56th NFF Annual Awards Dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria where their accomplishments will be highlighted in front of one of the most powerful audiences in all of sports. One member of the class will also be announced live at the event as the winner of the William V. Campbell Trophy.

Named in honor of Bill Campbell, the chairman of Intuit, former player and head coach at Columbia University and the 2004 recipient of the NFF’s Gold Medal, the award comes with a 25-pound bronze trophy and increases the amount of the recipient’s grant by $7,000 for a total post-graduate scholarship of $25,000. A total distribution of $300,000 in scholarships will be awarded at the NFF Annual Awards Dinner, pushing the program’s all-time distributions to more than $10.4 million.

Launched in 1959, the NFF scholar-athlete program became the first initiative in history to award post-graduate scholarships based on both a player’s academic and athletic accomplishments. The William V. Campbell Trophy, first awarded in 1990, adds to the program’s mystique, having previously honored two Rhodes Scholars, a Rhodes Scholar finalist, two Heisman Trophy winners and five first-round NFL draft picks