Four ACC Standouts Land on Paycom Jim Thorpe Award 2025 Preseason Watch List

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (theACC.com) – Four returning 2024 All-ACC performers have been named to the prestigious Paycom Jim Thorpe Award 2025 Preseason Watch List, as introduced at this time by the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame (OSHOF) and the Jim Thorpe Association. 

Widely considered certainly one of faculty soccer’s most prestigious particular person honors, the Paycom Jim Thorpe Award is offered yearly to the nation’s prime defensive again. This 12 months’s preseason watch checklist options 35 of the nation’s premier defensive backs, representing 9 conferences and one impartial program. 

The preseason watch checklist is chosen by a devoted screening committee, which considers earlier efficiency and preseason All-America recognition. While the present checklist consists of as much as 50 of the nation’s prime defensive backs, it’s not closing—extra gamers could also be added all through the season primarily based on their on-field efficiency. 

A screening committee composed of members of the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame (OSHOF) carefully evaluates defensive backs all through the season, together with these named to the watch checklist. The subject will likely be narrowed to as much as 15 semifinalists on October 28, 2025. From that group, three finalists will likely be introduced on November 25, 2025, with the winner revealed reside on ESPN throughout The Home Depot College Football Awards at 7 p.m. ET on December 12, 2025. 

The official presentation of the Paycom Jim Thorpe Award will happen on February 10, 2026, in Oklahoma City, following the nationwide awards present. Each 12 months, the present recipient and all previous winners are invited to attend and be honored. The Paycom Jim Thorpe Award Banquet yearly welcomes over 600 visitors, together with quite a few celebrities, dignitaries, and supporters, in a celebration of excellence in faculty soccer. 

The Paycom Jim Thorpe Award is a member of the National College Football Awards Association (NCFAA), which encompasses faculty soccer’s most prestigious awards. The NCFAA’s 25 awards have honored greater than 950 recipients since 1935. Visit NCFAA.org for extra info.