Wiley Receives NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship (5/2/07) 

BILLINGS, MT – Montana State-Billings senior Jonathan Wiley has been awarded one of 58 NCAA Postgraduate Scholarships.  Wiley was a four-year letterman in basketball for the Yellowjackets, earning honorable mention all-conference honors as a senior.  During commencement on May 5, Wiley will be recognized as one of three 2007 Montana State University-Billings Outstanding Seniors.  He was a double major in business management and business finance.  Wiley is the second MSUB student-athlete to win the prestigious scholarship.  Women’s soccer player Margot Merrill-Johnson received it in 2005.

The NCAA awarded 58 postgraduate scholarships of $7,500 each to 29 male student-athletes and 29 female student-athletes who participated in winter sports, which included men's and women's basketball, men’s fencing, men’s and women’s gymnastics, women’s ice hockey, women’s rifle, men's and women's swimming and diving, men's and women’s indoor track and field and wrestling.

In addition to the winter sport honorees, the NCAA also awards 116 postgraduate scholarships to student-athletes participating in fall and spring sports in which the NCAA conducts championships or participates in as an emerging sport, for a total of 174 postgraduate scholarships annually.

The NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship was created in 1964 to promote and encourage postgraduate education by rewarding the Association’s most accomplished student-athletes through their participation in NCAA championship and/or emerging sports.  Athletics and academic achievements, as well as campus involvement, community service, volunteer activities and demonstrated leadership, are evaluated.  In maintaining the highest broad-based standards in the selection process, the program aims to reward those individuals whose dedication and effort are reflective of those characteristics necessary to succeed and thrive through postgraduate study in an accredited graduate degree program.

To qualify for an NCAA postgraduate scholarship, a student-athlete must have an overall grade-point average of 3.200 (on a 4.000 scale) or its equivalent and must have performed with distinction as a member of the varsity team in the sport in which the student-athlete was nominated.  The student-athlete also must intend to continue academic work beyond the baccalaureate degree as a full-time or part-time graduate student.

Nominations for Yellowjacket student-athletes are submitted by MSU Billings Faculty Athletic Representative Dr. Scott Harris.  Candidates are screened by seven regional selection committees, and the award recipients are selected by the NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship Committee.