Knight Selected as a William V. Campbell Trophy Semifinalist

(IRVING, Texas) – Selected as the best and brightest from the college gridiron, The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame (NFF) announced the 176 semifinalists for the 2021 William V. Campbell Trophy, presented by Fidelity Investments. The award recognizes an individual as the absolute best in the country for his combined academic success, football performance and exemplary leadership. Carnegie Mellon's senior cornerback Sean Knight (New Canaan, Conn./New Canaan) is one of 39 Division III players on the list of 176 student-athletes.

Of the 39 Division III student-athletes, Knight is joined by Donald Day III from Case Western Reserve and Ian Barr from Westminster College as the three semifinalists from the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC).

Through four games this season, Knight has 13 solo tackles, three interceptions and five passed defended. He currently ranks tied for fourth on the school's all-time interception list with 12 for his career and has three multi-interception games for his career. The senior was an All-PAC selection last season.

Knight, a CoSIDA Academic All-American a season ago, carries a 3.67 GPA as a civil engineering major. He is a three-time PAC honor roll honoree. The 2021 Tartan captain is a member of Alpha Sigma Phi Fraternity where he participated in philanthropic events to raise money for nonprofit organizations. Knight has volunteered as tutor for high school kids at the Environmental Charter School and at the Western Spring Sectional competition of the Special Olympics of Pennsylvania.

During the summer of 2020, he was a project manager intern for Structure Tone in New York City and was a civil engineering inter this past summer at Kimley-Horn.

To be nominated for the William V. Campbell Trophy, student-athletes need to be submitted 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.

Named in honor of the late William V. Campbell, the former chairman of Intuit, former player and head coach at Columbia University and the 2004 recipient of the NFF's Gold Medal, The William V. Campbell Trophy has become the most prestigious and desirable "academic" award in college football. The trophy recognizes an individual as the absolute best in the country for his academic success, football performance and exemplary leadership.

During the past 62 years, the NFF National Scholar-Athlete Awards have truly become one of the most prestigious academic honors in all of college sports, distributing $12.1 million to 878 outstanding individuals since its inception.

Launched in 1959, the NFF National Scholar-Athlete Awards program became the first initiative in history to award postgraduate scholarships based on both a player's academic and athletic accomplishments. The Campbell Trophy, first awarded in 1990, adds to the program's prestige, having previously honored two Rhodes Scholars, a Rhodes Scholar finalist, two Heisman Trophy winners and seven first-round NFL draft picks.

The NFF will announce 12-14 finalists on October 27, and each of them will receive an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship as a member of the NFF National Scholar-Athlete Class Presented by Fidelity Investments. The finalists will travel to the ARIA Resort & Casino Las Vegas for the 63rd NFF Annual Awards Dinner Presented by Las Vegas on Dec. 7, where their accomplishments will be highlighted in front of one of the most powerful audiences in all of sports. Live during the event, one member of the class will be declared as the winner of the 32nd Campbell Trophy and have his postgraduate scholarship increased to $25,000.