Jan. 29, 2025

Ferris State football players Saipaia, Rose, and Middleton earn Academic All-America honors for performance on field and in the classroom

A trio of Ferris State University football standouts have been chosen to the 2024 College Sports Communicators Academic All-America squad, saluting their top performances on the field and in the classroom.  

The trio of linebacker Sefa Saipaia, a Data Science and Analytics major form Fort Collins, Colorado,  slot receiver Brady Rose, a Construction Management major from Muskegon, and kicker Mitch Middleton, a Mechanical Engineering Technology major from Middleville, all attained Academic All-America recognition after helping lead Ferris State to the program's third NCAA Division II National Championship in the last four years.

A standout linebacker, Saipaia earned CSC Academic All-America First Team honors while both Rose and Middleton were tabbed to the CSC Academic All-America Second Team.

Overall, the Bulldogs had three of the five total student-athletes from the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference named to one of the two CSC Academic All-America squads.

Additionally, Ferris State was one of only four NCAA Division II programs from across the country with three or more honorees, along with Slippery Rock, Harding and Bemidji State.

In addition to the three CSC Academic All-America standouts, the Bulldogs also had a total of eight student-athletes named to the CSC Academic All-District squad, which was the most of any school in the GLIAC.

Along with Saipaia, Rose and Middleton, the Bulldogs' academic all-district honorees included linebacker Jason Williams , an Integrated Studies major from Detroit, long snapper Sam Wahlberg, a Building Construction Technology major from Muskegon, linebacker Konnor Near, a Small Business Management major form St. Johns, receiver Cam Underwood, a Social Work major form Dearborn Heights, and tailback Zak Ahern, a Business Administration major from Rockford.

Rose earned CSC Academic All-America honors for the second year in a row. Meanwhile, Sapiaia was previously chosen as an All-American on the field and named to the D2Football.com Elite 100 All-America team while Wahlberg was the NCAA Division II Elite 90 Award recipient for holding the highest grade point average of any participant at the national championship game among the other accomplishments.

This is the second year in a row in which Ferris State has had at least two CSC Academic All-Americans as former defensive end Olalere Oladipo was a first team pick in 2023 with Rose named to the second team as a specialist.

Overall, since the inception of the CSC (formerly CoSIDA) Academic All-America Team, the Bulldogs have now had a total of 15 football student-athletes achieve Academic All-America recognition a total of 21 times.

The Bulldogs captured their third NCAA DII National Championship in the past four seasons this past campaign. Ferris State concluded the year with a 14-1 overall record and beat Valdosta State 49-14 in the national title game on Dec. 21 in McKinney, Texas.