By John Painter
(Hamilton, NY – Jan. 3, 2013) Colgate’s Chris Looney was named Thursday to a pair of national academic all-star teams to continue a stellar senior postseason campaign for the Raiders wide receiver.
The Verona, N.J. native was selected for the 15th Annual Football Championship Subdivision Athletics Directors Association (FCS ADA) Academic All-Star Team presented by KP Sports, as well as the inaugural College Sports Journal All-Academic Team.
Looney also is one of six finalists in the running for the 12th Annual FCS ADA $5,000 Postgraduate Scholarship presented by KP Sports. Two student-athletes receive postgraduate scholarships during the Association’s annual membership meeting held in conjunction with the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) Convention.
That event takes place June 13-15 in Orlando. Postgraduate scholarship winners will be announced in late March.
A total of 54 student-athletes were named to this year’s FCS ADA Academic All-Star Team out of 98 nominees.
The postgraduate scholarship finalists are Kyle Bernard, punter from Northern Iowa; Nick DeKraker, defensive lineman from Youngstown State; Patrick Ford, offensive lineman from Eastern Kentucky; Pat Kelly, wide receiver from Liberty; Andrew Sutton, defensive back from Monmouth; and Looney.
A special review committee of FCS athletics directors was responsible for selecting the all-star team and scholarship finalists. Completing this task were Ron Strollo, Youngstown State (chair); Ken Beazer, Southern Utah; Charlie Cobb, Appalachian State; Brian Hutchinson, Morehead State; Marilyn McNeil, Monmouth; and Jeff Tingey, Idaho State.
The College Sports Journal team was selected by a panel of FCS experts that include the co-owners of College Sports Journal, David Coulson and Chuck Burton. Specific input from FCS conferences, conference and national all-academic teams and nominations, and other academic sources also were used in selection.
Looney, an international relations and history major with a 3.90 GPA at Colgate, completed a career season in leading the Raiders into the NCAA 2012 playoffs. He led the team in all three receiving categories – 43 receptions, 776 yards and six touchdowns.
Last month, Looney was selected for first-team Academic All-America honors by the College Sports Information Directors of America, Colgate’s first such recipient since John Frieser in 2003. Like Frieser in his senior year, Looney also was named Patriot League Football Scholar-Athlete of the Year.