INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The NCAA announced today that two-time American Rivers Conference (A-R-C) Offensive Most Valuable Player and Central College’s recent football graduate, Blaine Hawkins, has been selected as the Today’s Top 10 awardee. Hawkins is one of 10 recent student-athletes to be selected as this year’s awardees.
 
The NCAA Today’s Top 10 award, as selected by the NCAA Honors Committee, recognizes ten recent student-athletes for their outstanding achievements as athletes, students and contributors to their campuses and communities. The awardees each have completed their undergraduate studies and their athletics eligibility and are pursuing successful futures.
 
Blaine Hawkins was the 2021 Gagliardi Trophy winner, recognizing the NCAA’s top Division III football player. In 2021, Hawkins was also named the D3football.com Offensive Player of the Year and was selected to the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Division III All-America first team, the Associated Press Division III All-America first team and the D3football.com All-America first team. He received D3football.com all-region recognition in 2021 and 2019. The two-time American Rivers Conference Offensive Player of the Year received first-team All-Conference honors in 2021, 2019, and 2018. Hawkins holds the records across all three NCAA divisions for the most touchdown passes in one season, with 63 passes in 2021, and for points responsible for in a season, with 410 in 2021. He holds NCAA Division III records for the most touchdown passes thrown in one half, at seven, and touchdowns responsible for in a career, with 178. A 2021 second-team College Sports Communicators Academic All-American, Hawkins was named a College Sports Communicators Academic All-District 8 first-team selection in 2021 and 2020. The two-year team co-captain was a representative on the campus’ Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) and the Student Senate. He served as an assistant coach for a third-grade basketball team and volunteered annually to complete landscaping projects on Central Service Day.
 
Hawkins is the third conference athlete to ever receive this award, joining Emilie Hanson of Central (women’s basketball) in 1995 and Kelly Schade of Simpson (softball) in 2000. This award started in 1973 as the Today’s Top V Award and when Hanson and Schade received it, it was the Today’s Top VIII Award.
 
The 2023 NCAA Today’s Top 10 awardees are Sylvie Binder, Columbia; Jaeda Daniel, NC State; Brooke Forde, Stanford; Naomi Girma, Stanford; Gianna Glatz, Rutgers; Blaine Hawkins, Central (Iowa); Jessica Meakim, West Chester; Jack Mulvihill, St. John Fisher; Juan Ortiz Couder, Embry-Riddle (Florida); and Abby Steiner, Kentucky.
 
The NCAA Honors Committee is composed of nationally distinguished citizens and dedicated representatives from NCAA member schools and conferences, including past awardees.
 
The Today’s Top 10 awardees will be honored at the Honors Celebration on January 11, 2023 during the NCAA Convention in San Antonio, Texas.