STANFORD, Calif. – The National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame announced Tuesday that Stanford’s Aziz Shittu and Reed Miller were named members of the 2016 NFF Hampshire Honor Society, which is comprised of college football players from all divisions of play who each maintained a cumulative 3.2 grade-point average or better throughout their college career.
Miller and Shittu were two of 825 players from 280 schools that qualified for membership in the society’s ninth year.
Miller, a four-year starting long snapper for the Cardinal, will graduate with a degree in science, technology and society. A psychology major and standout defensive lineman for the Cardinal, Shittu currently is pursuing a professional career in the NFL.
Shittu and Miller were part of four bowl-bound teams at Stanford, including three Rose Bowl Games. The pair steered the Cardinal to two Pac-12 Conference titles.
Qualifications for membership in the NFF Hampshire Honor Society include: being a starter or a significant contributor in one’s last year of eligibility (or a senior who has declared for the NFL Draft) at an NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision, Football Championship Subdivision, Division II, Division III or an NAIA college or university; achieving a 3.2 cumulative grade-point average throughout entire course of undergraduate study; and meeting all NCAA/NAIA-mandated progress towards degree requirements.
The NFF Hampshire Honor Society capitalizes on the NFF’s National Scholar-Athlete program by greatly expanding the number of scholar-athletes the NFF can recognize each year. The program further strengthens the organization’s leadership role in encouraging academic performance by the student-athletes who play football at the 772 colleges and universities with football programs nationwide. The initiative has honored 5,752 student-athletes since its inception, and the program has experienced growth every year in either members or school participation since its launch in 2007. The 280 schools represented in 2015 is a new high water mark, eclipsing the 267 schools in 2014. The total of 825 players in the 2015 class is the second-most in the program’s history, only 13 behind the 838 honored last year.
Jon F. Hanson, the chairman and founder of The Hampshire Companies, provided the endowment to launch the NFF Hampshire Honor Society in 2007.