NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Vanderbilt football student-athlete Eli Stowers has been selected as a finalist for the 2025 William V. Campbell Trophy®, the nation’s premier scholar-athlete award, it was announced by the National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame on Wednesday. As a finalist, he is also a member of the NFF National Scholar-Athlete Class, presented by Fidelity Investments and will receive an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship.
Stowers and the other finalists will be honored on Tuesday, Dec. 9 at the 67th NFF Annual Awards Dinner at the Bellagio Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.
The Campbell Trophy® recognizes an individual as the absolute best football scholar-athlete in the nation for his combined academic success, football performance and exemplary leadership. To be eligible for the award, candidates must be a senior who will complete his final year of eligibility in the 2025 season or a graduate student or graduate transfer who has already earned a degree and is participating in the 2025 season; have an undergraduate grade-point average of at least 3.2 on a 4.0 scale; have outstanding football ability as a first-team player or significant contributor; and have demonstrated strong leadership and citizenship.
He is the fourth Commodore in the history of the program to be named an NFF Scholar-Athlete, and the first since Hunter Hillenmeyer was selected in 2002.
Stowers is also a semifinalist for the Jason Witten Collegiate Man of the Year Award presented to an individual who has demonstrated a record of leadership by exhibiting exceptional courage, integrity and sportsmanship both on and off the field.
A second-team midseason All-America selection by Sports Illustrated, Stowers leads the Commodores with 28 catches and 355 receiving yards this fall and has scored a pair of touchdowns, helping Vandy to a 6-1 start and its first appearance in the top 10 of the Associated Press poll since 1947. He currently stands sixth nationally among tight ends in receiving yards, and is also in the top 10 in career receiving yards and average yards per catch—ranking fourth (1,359) and seventh (12.1), respectively—among all active players at the position.
He needs just seven receiving yards to record 1,000 in his time as a Commodore after pacing the team with 49 receptions, 638 receiving yards and five touchdown catches his first season with the program. The Denton, Texas, resident was voted first-team All-SEC and selected third-team All-America by Phil Steele while being named a semifinalist for the John Mackey Award last fall.
Stowers graduated from New Mexico State with a 3.92 cumulative grade-point average in 2024, and after adding a master’s degree in finance from Vanderbilt earlier this year he made the 2024-25 First-Year SEC Academic Honor Roll. This fall, he has continued his work in the classroom pursuing a master’s of legal studies degree.
Stowers was elected a team captain prior to the start of this season, and since coming to the program he has contributed numerous philanthropic efforts highlighted by volunteering at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital, his participation in Social Impact Day with the Pencil Foundation and Metro Nashville Public Schools, and his support of the Dancing Dores fundraiser and the department’s SAAC Holiday Party.
Vanderbilt will play host to No. 15/14 Missouri Saturday at FirstBank Stadium, with the contest kicking off at 2:30 p.m. on ESPN.
