IRVING, Texas - Four NESCAC football student-athletes were named semifinalsts for the 2026 William V. Campbell Trophy, presented by the National Football Foundation (NFF). Bates' Ryan Rozich, Middlebury's Matt Shaw, Wesleyan's Austin Baker, and Holden Gering of Williams represent the NESCAC and were four of the 44 Division III players among the semifinalists. The William V. Campbell Trophy recognizes the top football scholar-athlete in the nation.
The NFF will announce 12-16 finalists on Oct. 21, and each of them will receive an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship as a member of the NFF National Scholar-Athlete Class. The finalists will travel to Las Vegas for the 68th NFF Annual Awards Dinner on Dec. 8, where their accomplishments will be highlighted. Live during the event, one member of the class will be declared as the winner of the 37th William V. Campbell Trophy and have his postgraduate scholarship increased to $25,000.
On the field last year, Rozich became the first Bobcat in program history to be named first team All-Region by D3football.com. He was named to the Division II/III All-New England Team by the New England Football Writers and was first team All-NESCAC at linebacker. Rozich ranked first in the NESCAC and sixth in all of NCAA Division III last year with 12.1 tackles per game. He also tied for the team lead with 5.5 tackles for loss. Rozich was named to the D3football.com Team of the Week as well as the NESCAC Special Teams Player of the Week after he stepped in at long snapper (a position he hadn't played since high school) and recovered a fumble against Tufts. He also tallied 12 total tackles, with four solo stops in the 35-28 win over the Jumbos.
Off the field, he is the leader of the Root Cellar Toy Drive, where Bates football players collect and deliver gifts for the non-profit community center that cultivates social, economic and spiritual wholeness for disadvantaged youth. Back home in Cromwell, he coaches and mentors youth football players, ages 6-12. The politics major and law & society minor maintains an impressive 3.96 grade point average. He was selected to the College Sports Communicators Football Academic All-District® Team in both 2024 and 2025, is a two-time NESCAC Fall All-Academic selection, and earned the Stephan B. Ritter Award in both 2024 and 2025 for having a top-10 GPA on the Bates football team.
Shaw, a political science major at Middlebury, paced the Panther defense with 13 tackles and four solo stops in the 2026 season opener versus Wesleyan. A two-year captain, the linebacker is a NESCAC All-Academic honoree and led the Panthers with 64 tackles and his 41 assisted tackles ranked fourth in the NESCAC.
In his first year as a starter at linebacker last season, Baker produced a team-leading 61 tackles (34 solo) including 7.5 TFL, two sacks, four pass breakups, and four QB hurries. He started the year with nine tackles in a home win over Middlebury, produced five tackles and two TFL in a road win over Bates, recorded seven tackles (six solo) and two pass breakups on the road against Colby, and had his best game with a season-high 12 tackles (six solo) with two TFL and one sack in the OT win over Williams on the road. In the 2026 season opener at Middlebury, Baker registered seven tackles in the Cardinals 35-13 victory.
A history major with a concentration in justice and law studies, Gering is a two-time NESCAC All-Academic Fall Team member and a 2024 All-NESCAC Second Team selection as a defensive back. The tri-captain was also named to the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District Football Team in 2024. He has spent time on both sides of the ball, catching 34 passes for 366 yards and two touchdowns in his career, while also playing cornerback, collecting 60 tackles, seven interceptions and 15 pass breakups, three of which came this past week in the Ephs' 17-7 victory over Bowdoin in the team's season opener.
Nominated 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 playing 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 Bill Campbell, former chairman of Intuit, former player and head coach at Columbia University and the 2004 recipient of the NFF's Gold Medal, the Campbell Trophy is a 25-pound bronze trophy and increases the amount of the recipient's grant by $7,000 for a total postgraduate scholarship of $25,000. This year's postgraduate scholarships will push the program's all-time distribution to more than $13.5 million.
