LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The University of Louisville baseball team was one of just 29 NCAA Division I institutions to be selected for the 2015-16 ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award. Louisville was among three ACC schools receiving the honor joining Duke and Georgia Tech.

The 2016 spring semester proved to be another stellar performance in the classroom for the Cardinals, who earned a cumulative team GPA of 3.130 marking the 10th straight semester (five consecutive years overall) the team has finished with a 3.0 GPA or higher as a group. A total of 27 Louisville players finished the spring semester with a 3.0 GPA or higher.

The recipients of the 2015-16 ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award, which honors high school and college programs that posted a GPA over 3.0 on a 4.0 scale for the academic year, were announced Tuesday. Over 140 high school and college programs were recognized with the inaugural award.

"We are extremely proud to recognize the academic accomplishments of so many of our member coaches' programs this year," said ABCA Executive Director Craig Keilitz. "This award highlights our coaches' commitment to developing student-athletes that excel both on and off the field, and we're proud of these student-athletes for their success in the classroom."

Teams from NCAA Divisions I, II and III, junior college and high school were honored. The new award was announced in May and the deadline for teams to be nominated was July 15.

In order to qualify for the ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award, programs must meet the following criteria:

• Must be a high school or college team
• Team must have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.00 on a 4.0 scale during the 2015-16 academic year
• Head coach must be a current ABCA member

The American Baseball Coaches Association has a long tradition of recognizing the achievements of baseball coaches and student-athletes. The ABCA/Rawlings All-America Teams are the nation's oldest, founded in 1949, and the ABCA's awards program also includes the ABCA/Rawlings All-Region Awards, the ABCA/Diamond Regional & National Coaches of the Year and several other major awards such as the ABCA Hall of Fame and the ABCA/Wilson Lefty Gomez Award.

Fans can follow Louisville baseball on Twitter (@UofLBaseball) at http://twitter.com/uoflbaseball and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ulbaseball.

2015-16 ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award Recipients
NCAA Division I
Arkansas State University
Ball State University (IN)
Central Michigan University
Chicago State University (IL)
Duke University (NC)
East Carolina University (NC)
Eastern Kentucky University
Eastern Michigan University
Elon University (NC)
Gardner-Webb University (NC)
Georgia State University
Georgia Tech
Illinois State University
Lafayette College (PA)
LIU Brooklyn (NY)
McNeese State University (LA)
Middle Tennessee State University
North Carolina A&T State University
Oregon State University
Sacramento State (CA)
St. John's University (NY)
UNC Greensboro
UNC Wilmington
University of Alabama-Birmingham
University of Evansville (IN)
University of Louisville (KY)
University of Maryland Eastern Shore
University of Portland (OR)
University of South Carolina
University of Southern Mississippi
University of Toledo (OH)