HOUSTON — North Central College football student-athlete Bobby Behmer has won the NCAA’s Elite 90 Award at this year’s Division III Football Championship, earning the distinction for the second straight year. The announcement was made Friday evening prior to Sunday’s national championship game, the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl, at Shell Energy Stadium.
The award honors the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average at each of the NCAA’s 90 national championships each year. An economics major with a 4.00 grade-point average (4.00 scale), Behmer is the third Cardinal to be so honored and the first to be selected twice. Linebacker Ben Wong ’22 was named the Elite 90 winner at the 2021 national championship and offensive lineman Jeske Maples was so honored in 2022.
The Cardinals’ starting tight end since early in the 2023 campaign, Behmer earned Second Team All-Conference honors as well as Second Team All-Region 5 accolades from D3football.com.. Behmer has caught 13 passes for 139 yards and three touchdowns this season.
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The College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) was founded in 1946 and currently services nine member institutions including Augustana College (Rock Island, Ill.), Carroll University (Waukesha, Wis.), Carthage College (Kenosha, Wis.), Elmhurst University (Elmhurst, Ill.), Illinois Wesleyan University (Bloomington, Ill.), Millikin University (Decatur, Ill.), North Central College (Naperville, Ill.), North Park University (Chicago, Ill.) and Wheaton College (Wheaton, Ill.).
