ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - The University of New Mexico men's soccer team placed 24 student-athletes on the Conference USA Commissioner's Honor Roll the conference office announced Thursday. In order to be win the award, student-athletes must maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better.

"I'm very proud of the guys," UNM head coach Jeremy Fishbein said. "That's what the program is all about: excellence in the classroom, in the community and on the playing field. I don't know if I've ever had a team with that many successful student-athletes. It's pretty exciting." 

It's a tremendous accomplishment for a team with 26 student-athletes, and the Lobos had the most players honored out of all men's soccer teams in the conference. The next closest teams were Florida Atlantic and South Carolina with 20 apiece.

"Associate head coach Paul Souders does an incredible job overseeing the academics of the team, and Quinton Freeman, our academic advisor, is tremendous," Fishbein said, "but the majority of praise should go to the guys. They're dedicated, hard-working and intelligent. Hopefully we can keep that going."

This isn't the first time the team has been honored for its work in the classroom this offseason as they already earned the NSCAA Team Academic Award back in November. Several individuals were also honored. Josh Dye was named a CoSIDA Academic All-American, Dye was joined by Nick Miele and Jason Beaulieu as Academic All-Conference, and four Lobos were named Academic All-District.

You can find the complete release from the conference here. Student-athletes that have a 3.75 cumulative GPA will earn the Commissioner's Academic Medal, and those will be announced Friday.