OGDEN, Utah - The Big Sky Conference announced its Scholar-Athlete Award winners and Portland State's Tygue Howland (football) and Frankie Ross (soccer) were selected to this year's list. Each institution was honored with one male and female athlete. The athletes were selected upon athletic and academic performance during the 2010-11 school year.

To qualify for the award, a student-athlete must have a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.2 (on a 4.0 scale), be a member of the graduating class and/or have completed their last year of intercollegiate athletic eligibility, have completed at least two years of intercollegiate competition at the institution, and be a letterwinner.

Howland, a native of Sedro-Wooley, Wash., took over the starting quarterback position late in the 2010 season, as starting quarterback Connor Kavanaugh suffered a season-ending injury. In his last three games of the season, Howland was 49-for-117 (41.8%) passing with 714 yards and four touchdown passes, including a 323 yard passing performance against eventual national champion, Eastern Washington. He graduated with a degree in business and is currently working on a master's degree at University of Washington in intercollegiate athletic administration.

A native of Oakland, Calif., Ross, was a first team All-Big Sky selection last fall after accumulating 14 points on five goals and four assists to lead the Vikings, the Big Sky's runnerup. At season's end, Ross was named the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) Scholar All-West first team and was then selected to the Scholar All-America third team. Ross became the first academic all-american in program history and ended her career tied for second in career assists (11) and third all-time in career points (35) as a community health major.

It marks the second-straight year that a football and soccer player have earned the award, as Ryan Pedersen and Dolly Enneking won the honor last year.

To view the full list of winners, click here.