Caputo Selected as a William V. Campbell Trophy Semifinalist

(IRVING, Texas) – Selected as the best and brightest from the college gridiron, The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame (NFF) announced the 177 semifinalists for the 2025 William V. Campbell Trophy, presented by Fidelity Investments. The award recognizes an individual as the absolute best in the country for his combined academic success, football performance and exemplary leadership. Carnegie Mellon's senior placekicker Justin Caputo is one of 33 Division III players on the list of 177 student-athletes.

Of the 33 Division III student-athletes, Caputo is joined by Isaac Urquidi of Johns Hopkins as the two semifinalists from the Centennial Conference (CC).

Caputo was selected to the 2025 D3football.com Preseason All-America Team, as he landed a spot on the first team. He is a two-time first team All-Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) selection in 2023 and 2024. Last season, he led the conference in scoring for kickers with 83 points for the second straight year, while also leading the PAC with 10 field goals and 53 converted point-after-attempts. He recorded a career-long 43-yard field goal against Grove City.

Last Saturday in the win over 20th-ranked Berry College, Caputo moved into second all-time in program history 99 career PAT's and needs 10 to become the all-time leader. He already is the program's all-time leader in field goals made with 27 for his career.

The senior, a College Sports Communicators Academic All-American a season ago, carries a 3.92 GPA as a chemical engineering major. Caputo is one of 13 semifinalists that have earned Academic All-America recognition.

Caputo is a three-time conference honor roll honoree and during the summer of 2025 he was a Process Analyzer Technology intern at Covestro where he investigated and resolved issues with malfunctioning process analyzers through field investigation and data analysis. The summer prior, Caputo was a STEM Intern at Covestro where he performed chemical resistance testing of new products according to automotive OEM specifications. He is a member of Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity and has participated in philanthropy events to raise money for cancer research. Caputo also volunteers at the Western Spring Sectional competition of the Special Olympics of Pennsylvania.

To be nominated for the William V. Campbell Trophy, student-athletes need to be submitted by their schools, which are limited to one nominee each. Candidates for the awards must be a senior or graduate student in their final year of eligibility, have a GPA of at least 3.2 on a 4.0 scale, have outstanding football ability as a first team player or significant contributor and have demonstrated strong leadership and citizenship. The class is selected each year by the NFF Awards Committee, which is comprised of a nationally recognized group of media, College Football Hall of Famers and athletics administrators.

Named in honor of the late William V. Campbell, the former chairman of Intuit, former player and head coach at Columbia University and the 2004 recipient of the NFF's Gold Medal, The William V. Campbell Trophy has become the most prestigious and desirable "academic" award in college football. The trophy recognizes an individual as the absolute best in the country for his academic success, football performance and exemplary leadership.

During the past 66 years, the NFF National Scholar-Athlete Awards have truly become one of the most prestigious academic honors in all of college sports, distributing $13.2 million to 938 outstanding individuals since its inception.

Launched in 1959, the NFF National Scholar-Athlete Awards program became the first initiative in history to award postgraduate scholarships based on both a player's academic and athletic accomplishments. The Campbell Trophy, first awarded in 1990, adds to the program's prestige. Past recipients include two Rhodes Scholars, a Rhodes Scholar finalist, two Heisman Trophy winners and eight first-round NFL draft picks.

The NFF will announce 12-16 finalists on October 22, and each of them will receive a $18,000 postgraduate scholarship as a member of the NFF National Scholar-Athlete Class Presented by Fidelity Investments. The finalists will travel to the Bellagio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas for the 67th NFF Annual Awards Dinner Presented by Las Vegas on Dec. 9, where their accomplishments will be highlighted in front of one of the most powerful audiences in all of sports. Live during the event, one member of the class will be declared as the winner of the 36th Campbell Trophy and have his postgraduate scholarship increased to $25,000.