BUFFALO, NY - Twelve University at Buffalo football players were honored by the Mid-American Conference as scholar athletes and four players -Andy Avery (Rochester Hills, MI/Rochester Hills), Darren Hicks (Worthington, OH/Worthington-Kilbourne), Jeff Mills (Wilkes-Barre, PA/Coughlin) and Jason Smalarz (Fraser, MI/Fraser) -were named MAC All-Academic team members.

To be named a scholar-athlete a student must obtain a 3.0 grade point average while participating in a MAC-sponsored sport. To be named Academic All-MAC a player must achieve a 3.25 GPA or higher while playing in over 50% of his team's games.

Other Bulls who earned scholar-athlete honors were: David Alabi (Worthington, OH/Worthington-Kilbourne), Andre Forde (Penfield, NY/Penfield), Alex Lazo (East Patchogue, NY/Bellport), Youdlain Marcellus (Longueuil, Quebec/Vanier Prep), Dan Minocchi (Canton, OH/Canton Central Catholic), Casey Russell (Lafayette, NY/Lafayette), Randall Secky (Maple Grove, NY/Maple Grove) and Erik Zeppuhar (Alison Park, PA/Shaler).

Only three other schools in the conference placed more than 12 players on the MAC honor roll and Buffalo's number is up two from the 2000 season.

The list of UB scholar-athletes with Academic All-MAC players in italics:

Name Cl./Elig. GPA Major

` David Alabi So./Fr. 3.62 Psychology

Andy Avery Jr./So. 3.77 Psychology/Pre-Med

Andre Forde Jr./Jr. 3.03 Management

Darren Hicks So./Fr. 3.32 Management

Alex Lazo Sr./Sr. 3.38 Management

Youdlain Marcellus Sr./Sr. 3.03 Communications

Jeff Mills Jr./So. 3.36 Management

Dan Minocchi So./Fr. 3.21 Exercise Science

Casey Russell So./Fr. 3.05 Industrial Engineering

Randall Secky So./Fr. 3.04 Management

Jason Smalarz Jr./So. 3.75 Finance