Darlington Named Finalist for Senior CLASS Award

NORMAN — Oklahoma senior center Ty Darlington was one of 10 NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision student-athletes named as a finalist for the 2015 Senior CLASS Award on Friday.

An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School®, the Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities.

From Apopka, Fla., Darlington started all 13 games at center for Oklahoma in 2014 and was was a CoSIDA First-Team Academic All-American last year as a junior, was named a Dr. Gerald Lage Award winner (highest academic honor given to a student-athlete by the Big 12 Conference) and earned the 1A Faculty Athletics Representatives Academic Excellence Award. The three-time OU President's Honor Roll member earned only two Bs during his undergraduate course work. He is a six-time Sooner Scholar and Big 12 Commissioner's Honor Roll selection.

Other honors secured by Darlington at OU were the 2015 Letzeiser Award (based on leadership, scholarship and service to the university), the 2015 Dan Gibbens Outstanding Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award, the 2015 Athletics Director's Leadership Award, the 2015 Athletics Council Service Award, the 2014 Sooner Oath Award for male athletes and the 2012-13 Jay Myers Outstanding Freshman Award, presented by the OU Athletics Council.

So far in 2015, Darlington has started eight of nine games, missing just the Tulsa game due to injury, and is a finalist for the William V. Campbell Award and a semifinalist for the Wuerffel Award. He is one of 15 Division I student-athletes who serve on the NCAA autonomy legislation committee and also serves as the president of the Big 12 Student-Athlete Advisory Committee for the 2015-16 school year.

The 10 Senior CLASS Award finalists were chosen by a media committee from the list of 30 candidates announced in September. Nationwide fan voting begins immediately to help select the winner. Fans are encouraged to vote on the Senior CLASS Award at www.seniorCLASSaward.com through Dec. 14. Fan votes will be combined with media and Division I head coaches' votes to determine the winner. The Senior CLASS Award winner will be announced during the football bowl season in early January.

2015 Football Finalists for Senior CLASS Award

Michael Bercovici, Arizona State
Jeremy Cash, Duke
Ty Darlington, Oklahoma
Brandon Doughty, Western Kentucky
Cody Kessler, USC
Tyler Matakevich, Temple
Joshua Perry, Ohio State
Dak Prescott, Mississippi State
Reggie Ragland, Alabama
Nate Sudfeld, Indiana