What does All-Conference mean?
All-Conference honours name the best athletes in an American college conference in a given sport and season. Most conferences publish a First Team and Second Team, many add Honorable Mention, and in scored sports the teams are position-by-position. The selections are announced by the conference office at the end of the regular season, before the NCAA championships.[1] [2]
Who selects the teams?
The head coaches of the conference's member universities. Ballots go out from the conference office, coaches are normally barred from voting for their own athletes, and the conference announces the result — which is why All-Conference is a peer judgement by the people who prepared against the athlete all season. A parallel media team is published in some conferences.[1] [3]
How large is the field?
A conference is a league of universities — the SEC, Big Ten, ACC, Big 12 and the Ivy League among Division I's thirty-odd. Membership runs from roughly eight to eighteen schools, and each fields a full roster in each sport, so an All-Conference team is drawn from a population that in a large sport reaches several hundred athletes.[2] [3]
How does it relate to All-American?
It is the tier below. All-America honours cover a whole national division and are conferred by the sport's coaches association or its established media selectors; All-Conference covers one league. In practice All-Conference selection is the ordinary precondition for All-America consideration, and conference honours are what the national selectors read first.[1] [4]
Why does it matter?
Because it is the first honour in American college sport decided by expert judgement rather than by a single result, published by an institution with a permanent record, and repeated every season across every sport. For athletes who compete outside the individual-championship sports, it is frequently the clearest available measure of standing among their peers.[1] [2]
References
- NCAA — About the NCAA. Accessed August 2026.
- Southeastern Conference — Awards. Accessed August 2026.
- Big Ten Conference — Awards. Accessed August 2026.
- CSCAA — All-America selections. Accessed August 2026.