Ben Boothby will be honored as the Merlin Taylor Academic Hall of Fame Award winner. Boothby was a two-time first-team all-Missouri Valley Football Conference pick and earned first-team All-America honors as a senior in 2011. Boothby earned second-team academic All-America accolades in 2010 and was a two-time first- team all-district academic pick. He was a finalist for the 2011 FCS ADA Postgraduate Scholarship and was a semifinalist for the 2011 William V. Campbell Trophy (Academic Heisman).