DALLAS, Tx. - Selected as the best and brightest from the college gridiron, The National Football Foundation (NFF) & College Hall of Fame announced today the 127 candidates for the 2011 NFF National Scholar-Athlete Awards, presented by Fidelity Investments®, a leading provider of not-for-profit workplace retirement savings plans in higher education . The 127 nominees including Moravian College senior defensive lineman Allen Petros (Bethlehem, Pa./Liberty HS) also comprise the list of semifinalists for the 2011 William V. Campbell Trophy, endowed by HealthSouth, which recognizes an individual as the absolute best scholar-athlete in the nation.

Petros is a two-time All-Centennial Conference performer, and he is in his fourth season starting for the Greyhounds. Earlier this season, Petros set Moravian's all-time school record in tackles for loss, and he now has 50 in his career to go with 23.5 sacks.

Off the field, Petros is majoring in biology/pre-dentistry and will be graduating in December 2011 before heading to dentistry school. He is a two-time member of the Centennial Conference Academic Honor Roll and a two-time member of the Capital One Academic All-District II College Division First Team. Petros has also been involved in Moravian's Be the Match; National Bone Marrow Donor Drive and has read books at local elementary schools.

"This year's candidates truly embody the National Football Foundation's mission of building leaders through football," said NFF Chairman Archie Manning whose sons Peyton (1997 Campbell Trophy winner) and Eli were named NFF National Scholar-Athletes in 1997 and 2003, respectively. "They are standouts in the classroom and on the field and have become leaders in their respective communities. Each school should take great pride in being represented by such well-rounded young men who will undoubtedly go on to do great things in life."

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 for maintaining such high standards throughout their collegiate careers," said NFF President & CEO Steven J. Hatchell. "We are extremely proud to showcase their achievements, and there is no question that the NFF Awards Committee will have an incredibly difficult task in selecting the final group of honorees 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 Wednesday, October 26. Each recipient will receive an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship, and they will vie as finalists for the 2011 William V. Campbell Trophy. Each member of the 2011 National Scholar-Athlete Class will also travel to New York City be honored December 6 during the 54th 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 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 $9.8 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 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.

In August, the NFF and Fidelity announced a multi-year initiative between the two organizations to celebrate the scholar-athlete ideal and a joint commitment to higher education. As part of the initiative, Fidelity became the first presenting sponsor ever in the 53-year history of the NFF National Scholar-Athlete Awards program. To promote the achievements of the recipients, Fidelity has been working with ESPN to produce a series of short television segments about the 2011 NFF National Scholar-Athlete Class. The segments will also include a special feature about the recipient of the William V. Campbell Trophy winner. All of the segments are airing on ESPN's College Football Live on Thursdays from September through early December.

The past recipients of the Campbell Trophy include: Air Force's Chris Howard (1990); Florida's Brad Culpepper (1991); Colorado's Jim Hansen (1992); Virginia's Thomas Burns (1993); Nebraska's Rob Zatechka (1994); Ohio State's Bobby Hoying (1995); Florida's Danny Wuerffel (1996); Tennessee's Peyton Manning (1997); Georgia's Matt Stinchcomb (1998); Marshall's Chad Pennington (1999); Nebraska's Kyle Vanden Bosch (2000); Miami's (Fla.) Joaquin Gonzalez (2001); Washington University in St. Louis' Brandon Roberts (2002); Ohio State's Craig Krenzel (2003); Tennessee's Michael Munoz (2004); LSU's Rudy Niswanger (2005); Rutgers' Brian Leonard (2006); Texas' Dallas Griffin (2007); Cal's Alex Mack (2008); Florida's Tim Tebow (2009); and Texas' Sam Acho (2010).

2011 NFF NATIONAL SCHOLAR-ATHLETE CANDIDATE NOTES

• 3.60 Average GPA
• 27 Nominees with a 3.9 GPA or better
• 6 Nominees with a perfect 4.0 GPA
• 86 Team Captains
• 56 All-Conference Picks
• 17 Academic All-America Selections
• 10 All-America Selections
• 27 Players (among all divisions) represented in this week's national top 25 polls
• 1 Player Formerly Named an NFF National High School Scholar-Athlete
• 47 Nominees from the Football Bowl Subdivision
• 33 Nominees from the Football Championship Subdivision
• 11 Nominees from the Division II
• 30 Nominees from the Division III
• 6 Nominees from the NAIA
• 61 Offensive Players
• 50 Defensive Players
• 16 Special Teams Players

NFF NATIONAL SCHOLAR-ATHLETE AWARDS CANDIDATES

Football Bowl Subdivision
Air Force - A.J. Wallerstein
Arizona State - Aaron Pflugrad
Army - Andrew Rodriguez
Auburn - Barrett Trotter
Ball State - Briggs Orsbon
Boise State - Nate Potter
Bowling Green State - Ben Bojicic
Brigham Young - Bryan Kariya
Buffalo - Peter Fardon
California - Giorgio Tavecchio
Clemson - Dawson Zimmerman
Colorado - Travis Sandersfeld
Connecticut - Harris Agbor
Georgia - Drew Butler
Indiana - Leon Beckum
Iowa - Tyler Nielsen
Kansas State - Tysyn Hartman
Kentucky - Stuart Hines
Miami (Fla.) - Spencer Whipple
Miami (Ohio) - Anthony Kokal
Michigan State - Kirk Cousins
Missouri - Grant Ressel
Navy - John Dowd
Nebraska - Austin Cassidy
North Carolina State - Mikel Overgaard
Northern Illinois - Chandler Harnish
Northwestern - Dan Persa
Notre Dame - David Ruffer
Oklahoma State - Brandon Weeden
Pittsburgh - Myles Caragein
Purdue - Joe Holland
Rutgers - Scott Vallone
San Diego State - Miles Burris
South Florida - Chaz Hine
Southern Mississippi - Austin Davis
Syracuse - Kevyn Scott
Texas - Emmanuel Acho
Texas A&M - Ryan Tannehill
Toledo - Mike VanDerMeulen
Troy - Jamie Hampton
Virginia - Robert Randolph
Virginia Tech - Danny Coale
Wake Forest - Michael Hoag
Washington State - Jared Karstetter
Western Michigan - John Potter
Wisconsin - Bradie Ewing
Wyoming - Clayton Kirven

Football Championship Subdivision
Albany - Herb Glass
Arkansas-Pine Bluff - Christopher Wilson
Austin Peay State - Nick Newsome
Brown - Kyle Newhall-Caballero
Bucknell - Tim Bolte
Columbia - Bob Hauschildt
Dartmouth - Luke Hussey
Dayton - Devon Langhorst
Delaware - Rob McDowell
Drake - Michael Lahart
Eastern Illinois - Cory Leman
Eastern Kentucky - Emory Attig
Elon - A.J. Harris
Georgia State - Kalan Jenkins
Holy Cross - Mike McCabe
Illinois State - Eric Brunner
McNeese State - Ben Bourgeois
Montana - Alex Shaw
North Dakota - Catlin Solum
North Dakota State - Matt Veldman
Northern Arizona - Ben Bachelier
Northern Iowa - Ben Boothby
Northwestern State - Yaser Elqutub
Old Dominion - Ronnie Cameron
Rhode Island - Matt Rae
Sam Houston State - Travis Watson
Samford - Joe Collins
South Dakota - Chris Ganious
South Dakota State - Brad Iverson
Stephen F. Austin - Drew Nelson
Valparaiso - Bobby Wysocki
Yale - Patrick Witt
Youngstown State - Andrew Johnson

Division II
Clark Atlanta (Ga.) - Aramide Adefemiwa
Colorado School of Mines - Clay Garcia
Colorado State-Pueblo - Lee Meisner
Delta State (Miss.) - Micah Davis
Ferris State (Mich.) - Tom Schneider
Harding (Ark.) - Luke Tribble
Newberry (S.C.) - Lequawn James
St. Cloud State (Minn.) - Matt Theis
Virginia State - William Rudd
Wayne State (Mich.) - Josh Renel
Wingate (N.C.) - Cody Haffly

Division III
Albion (Mich.) - John Lesinski
Augustana (Ill.) - David Lee
Bluffton (Ohio) - Russell Krouse
Case Western Reserve (Ohio) - Richard Doolin
Central (Iowa) - Jeremy Snead
Chicago (Ill.) - Danny Polaneczky
Cornell (Iowa) - Erik Krol
Dubuque (Iowa) - Michael Zweifel
Gallaudet (D.C.) - Caleb Hinton
Grinnell (Iowa) - Chris Jarmon
Hamline (Minn.) - Joshua Bain
Hampden-Sydney (Va.) - Ben Rogers
Macalester (Minn.) - Will Dhonau
Massachusetts Inst. of Tech. - Tyler Wagner
Mississippi College - Jeremy Bertrand
Moravian (Pa.) - Allen Petros
Norwich (Vt.) - Long Ding
Redlands (Calif.) - Tyler Aubrey
Rowan (N.J.) - Eric Sharkey
Saint John's (Minn.) - Andrew Rotschafer
St. Thomas (Minn.) - Dan Chapman
Trinity (Conn.) - Herman Brito
U.S. Coast Guard Academy (Conn.) - Ryan Webster
Washington & Jefferson (Pa.) - Gary Flavion
Washington Univ. in St. Louis (Mo.) - Kyle Larkin
Westminster (Pa.) - Shawn Lehocky
Williams (Mass.) - Ben Halbower
Wisconsin-Eau Claire - David Goodman
Wisconsin-Oshkosh - Justin Budiac
Wisconsin-Whitewater - Jared Kiesow

NAIA
Baker (Kan.) - John Babb
Cumberland (Tenn.) - Ben Miller
Cumberlands (Ky.) - Jay Bright
Morningside (Iowa) - Matt Muschall
Saint Xavier (Ill.) - Michael Prosser
South Dakota School of Mines - Andy Smith

ABOUT THE NATIONAL FOOTBALL FOUNDATION & COLLEGE HALL OF FAME
Founded in 1947 with early leadership from General Douglas MacArthur, legendary Army coach Earl "Red" Blaik and immortal journalist Grantland Rice, The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame, a non-profit educational organization, runs programs designed to use the power of amateur football in developing scholarship, citizenship and athletic achievement in young people. With 121 chapters and 12,000 members nationwide, NFF programs include the College Football Hall of Fame, Play It Smart, the NFF Hampshire Honor Society, the NFF National Scholar-Athlete Alumni Association, the NFF Gridiron Clubs of New York City, Dallas, and Los Angeles, and annual scholarships of more than $1.3 million for college and high school scholar-athletes. The NFF presents the MacArthur Bowl, the Campbell Trophy, endowed by HealthSouth, and releases the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) Standings. Learn more at www.footballfoundation.org.

ABOUT THE NATIONAL COLLEGE FOOTBALL AWARDS ASSOCIATION The William V. Campbell Trophy is a member of the National College Football Awards Association (NCFAA). The NCFAA was founded in 1997 as a coalition of the major collegiate football awards to protect, preserve and enhance the integrity, influence and prestige of the game's predominant awards. The NCFAA encourages professionalism and the highest standards for the administration of its member awards and the selection of their candidates and recipients. For more information, visit the association's official Web site, www.NCFAA.org.

Release Courtesy of NFF.