Howard Payne football was named the winners of American Southwest Conference Student-Athlete Advisory Committee Team Sportsmanship Award for fall 2012, the conference office announced on Wednesday (Nov. 28).

The award, in its sixth academic year, honors the member institution in each ASC championship sport that best displays positive qualities of sportsmanship and fair play from its student-athletes, coaches and fans throughout the season. The Student-Athlete Advisory Committees (SAACs) from the conference’s 14 member institutions vote on the recipients. Howard Payne has won the sportsmanship award in football for the third time.

“I am proud of the character of the young men in our program and how they represent themselves on and off the field,” said head HPU football coach Roger Giese. “This award speaks to what we are trying to accomplish on the field at HPU and continue in these men’s lives after college”

The ASC SAACs present sportsmanship awards in the fall for men’s and women’s cross country, football, men’s and women’s soccer and volleyball. The next ASC SAAC Team Sportsmanship Awards will be named after the 2012-13 basketball season.