Former Slippery Rock University quarterback and 2024 SRU alumnus Brayden Long was recognized alongside a prestigious class of award recipients when he was named as an NCAA Impact Award winner when the 2025 NCAA Honors recipients were announced Wednesday.
Long, who graduated from SRU with a degree in sport management in 2024 with a perfect 4.0 GPA, was a two-time Harlon Hill nominee as a player. The quarterback led The Rock to the national semifinals last season. Long becomes the first Slippery Rock student-athlete to be recognized with the NCAA Impact Award, which celebrates best of college athletics by honoring one exceptional male and one exceptional female senior student-athlete from each division. These honorees exemplify the highest standards of athletic excellence, academic achievement and service to their campuses and communities. The NCAA Impact Award represents the pinnacle of student-athlete recognition.
Long and the other NCAA Honors recipients will be celebrated at an awards ceremony in January at the NCAA Convention in National Harbor, Maryland outside of Washington, D.C.
The awards ceremony in January will be the third major awards presentation Long has attended in the last year. He was recognized in Las Vegas last December as the only NCAA Division II football player to be named as a member of the 2024 National Scholar-Athlete Class by the National Football Foundation and as the only Division II player to be a national finalist for the 2024 William V. Campbell Trophy, known as the Academic Heisman. Long was also recognized as the Division II Academic All-America Team Member of the Year on stage at the Maxwell Awards Gala at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta last April.
Long began his coaching career this season with Shippensburg.