North Alabama Continues to Lead Cabela’s School of the Year Rankings

Murray State University Stands in Second and Tennessee Tech University in Third

By Cody Levy

SAN ANTONIO, Texas – With less than two weeks left in the Cabela’s School of the Year Race, the University of North Alabama shows no sign of letting up on their lead in the Cabela’s School of the Year rankings. As it currently stands, the North Alabama Bass Team has a commanding 89 point lead over the second place team of Murray State University and a 180 point lead over third place, Tennessee Tech University.For many upperclassmen, the Cabela’s School of the Year Title is already known to be the most prestigious title in college fishing because of the work teams and members have put in towards the title, University of North Alabama (UNA) Freshman and Bass Team member, Austin Mize, while a newcomer as a freshman knows the title to be the primary goal of the club.

“The title means a lot to me,” stated Mize. “Going into the year it was our whole goal from day one. It’s also a challenge I set forth for myself – to compete in the School of the Year Title and to get a good finish in the BoatUS Championship. It means a lot to me to help contribute to the team in the big events that get a lot of points and I am really happy with the fourth place finish we got in the BoatUS Championship, along with our other team’s second place finish.”As the reigning 2014 Cabela’s School of the Year, UNA is no stranger to hard work and the consequential success. The team has competed in sixteen ACA sanctioned events this season, which is four more than the 2014 season, to earn a current total of 1,794 points. With more tournaments appearing on the schedule each year, UNA greets the schedule with hopes of sending moreteams to as many events as possible.

“Working together as a team, as far as the pairings go, has been easy throughout the year. A lot of teams are just based off of friendships, but then and a lot them are based off of individual strengths. We try to pair up the best teams together in order to get the best finishes. Everyone is all in when it comes to working as a team, travelling, and working hard just for the Cabela’s School of the Year points.”

With the end of the Cabela’s School of the Year Title drawing near, Mize knows the importance of every event, but can almost taste the victory of the UNA team being crowned the 2015 Cabela’s School of the Year.

“There’s only one tournament left, but the way it looks like with the points standings, we have an eighty-nine point lead and with a smaller tournament like the one coming up, it seems pretty impossible for any other school to take the lead and I am really pumped to be a part of this in my freshman year,” said Mize.Mize plans to take his freshman season’s success and use it as motivation throughout the rest of his college career. With three years left in his collegiate career, Mize hopes to not only do as well in the Cabela’s School of the Year race as the UNA team has done now for two consecutive years, but grow as an angler and learn as much as he can.

“This year has been such a learning experience for me and I look forward to three more years of college fishing to better myself as a fisherman. I set the bar high for myself for the next three years in the School of the Year race and hope to keep it like this past year the rest of college,” added Mize.

The remaining Cabela’s School of the Year Top Ten teams are listed as follows:

4. University of Louisiana Monroe

5. Bethel University

6. Clemson University

7. Mississippi State University

8. McKendree University

9. Kansas State University

10. University of Tennessee Chattanooga

To see a list of complete School of the Year Rankings, click here: Cabela’s School of the Year Rankings

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About the ACA

The Association of Collegiate Anglers, a division of Careco TV, is a sanctioning body developed to facilitate growth, development, and structure within competitive collegiate bass fishing. The ACA provides support to dozens of school operated regional events nationwide and owns the Cabela’s Collegiate Bass Fishing Series, the largest participatory collegiate tournament circuit in the country. With dedicated collegiate fishing programming on several television networks, four nationally televised collegiate bass fishing events, and thousands of members, the ACA is the leader in competitive collegiate bass fishing. For more information on the ACA, or the Cabela’s Collegiate Bass Fishing Series, visit www.CollegiateBassChampionship.com. For more information on Cabela’s visit Cabelas.com, for more information on CarecoTV, visit www.carecotv.com.