NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Vanderbilt’s Diego Pavia and Eli Stowers were named first-team All-America by The Sporting News it was announced on Wednesday, the second time this week the pair have both been recognized by an organization. Stowers earned first-team honors and Pavia was a second-team selection by the Associated Press Monday.
It’s the first time ever two Commodores have received All-America accolades from The Sporting News in the same season.
Pavia, the Heisman Trophy runner-up and Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award winner, has accounted for a school-record 4,018 yards of total offense and 36 touchdowns this season. The graduate quarterback from Albuquerque, New Mexico, has thrown for 3,192 yards and 27 scores—also both school records—while rushing for a team-high 826 yards and nine touchdowns including the becoming the first player on record at Vanderbilt to pass for 300-plus yards and run for more than 100 in a game in a win over Auburn. Pavia also posted the most total offense yards by a Dore since 1996 when he finished with 532 in a defeat of Kentucky on Senior Day.
It’s the fourth All-America team Stowers has made this year, as he was also a first-team selection by the Walter Camp Football Foundation and American Football Coaches Association in the last week. The winner of the 2025 William V. Campbell Trophy®—presented to college football’s premier scholar-athlete—and John Mackey Award, he leads the Commodores with 769 receiving yards on 62 catches and has scored four touchdowns this season, including posting back-to-back 100-yard games against No. 20/19 Texas and Auburn. The tight end from Denton, Texas, leads all players nationally at the position in receiving yards and is second in that group in receptions.
Pavia, Stowers and the Dores will face Iowa in the ReliaQuest Bowl in Tampa, Florida, in their final game of the season. The contest is set to be broadcast on ESPN on New Year’s Eve at 11 a.m. CT.
