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Capital One Academic All-District -- Complete Release
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern fifth-year seniors and 2014 co-captains Collin Ellis and Brandon Vitabile are among 25 players named to the 2014 Capital One Academic All-District 5 roster, as announced Thursday by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). Both Ellis and Vitabile also earned the honor in 2013.
CoSIDA's District 5 is composed of Division I football programs across Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. Student-athletes who are significant on-field contributors for their teams and who maintain a career grade point average of at least 3.3 are eligible for nomination and placed on a ballot voted upon by CoSIDA members.
Selection to the All-District squad automatically places a student-athlete onto the national ballot for Capital One Academic All-America consideration.
A three-year starter at linebacker for Northwestern, Ellis was elected team captain in 2014 and began the year with a career-high 12 tackles vs. Cal, but has missed three games due to injury in his senior campaign. Ellis, who has four career interceptions with two returned for touchdowns, ranked third on the team a year ago with 78 tackles. The Louisiana native will graduate from Northwestern with a degree in learning and organizational change.
Vitabile has been a rock on the Northwestern offensive line during his tenure in Evanston, starting all 46 games of his career and serving as a two-year co-captain in 2013 and 2014. Last month, Vitabile was announced as one of 17 football student-athletes from around the country and all divisions of football named to the National Football Foundation's National Scholar-Athlete Class of 2014. He was a Capital One Academic All-District honoree in 2013 and recorded a career GPA of 3.56, earning his undergraduate degree in economics with a minor in business institutions and a certificate in integrated marketing and communications.
Vitabile and Ellis are now vying to add to Northwestern's all-time total of 34 CoSIDA Academic All-Americans, most recently Brian Arnfelt and Patrick Ward in 2012.
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