Two four-year members of the UT Dallas men’s basketball team will advance to the national ballot for the 2010 Academic All-America team after being elected first-team All-District selections in the annual contest.

UT Dallas seniors Jordan Eppink and Scott Rodgers were two of five College Division first-team selections in CoSIDA’s District 6, which includes student-athletes from NAIA and NCAA Division II and III universities in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma.

The contest is sponsored by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) and ESPN The Magazine.

Senior Chelsea Edwards of the UT Dallas women’s basketball team was a second-team College Division selection in the women’s contest.

Nominations and voting for the All-America programs are conducted by members of the College Sports Information Directors of America. The national ballot will consist of 40 first-team selections from all eight CoSIDA districts with the national team announced later this month.

To be eligible for nomination, a student-athlete must be a significant contributor to his or her team, have completed at least one full year of study at the nominating institution and have a cumulative grade point average (GPA) of 3.2 or greater.

Eppink is a senior from Spring who has started for the Comets for each of the last four seasons. He has a cumulative GPA of 3.77 as an electrical engineering major.

Rodgers, who spent his first three seasons with the UT Dallas men’s team as a reserve player off the bench, has emerged as the team’s leading scorer in his final season. A finance major from The Woodlands, he finished his undergraduate degree in December with a 3.81 GPA and is currently in UT Dallas’ MBA program.

Edwards is UT Dallas’ all-time leader in several statistical categories after being among the team’s leading scorers in all four seasons with the Comets. She earned her undergraduate degree in business in just three years, and is currently enrolled in UT Dallas’ graduate program in Public Affairs with a cumulative GPA of 3.5.

UTD has had several student-athletes advance past the district level in the Academic All-America voting during the last 10 years, but has not had a nominee finish above second-team on the national team.