The Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism at the University of Maryland won first place in the Division D projects category of the 2025 Associated Press Sports Editors contest.
The Shirley Povich Center’s winning entry was a series of stories on where and how high school athletes can cash in on name, image and likeness deals across all 50 states, and the impact NIL is having on high school athletics in the U.S.
APSE contest winners will be honored at the 2026 APSE Summer Conference banquet July 18 at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, Va. Registration for the conference is open; you can register right here.
The Shirley Povich Center will receive a first-place plaque. The second- through 10th-place finishers will receive frame-worthy certificates.
Sports editors submitted 22 entries in the Division D projects category. Each entry was permitted to contain up to five pieces, along with supplementary optional content for judges to consider. Contest chair Perryn Keys and APSE officers Paul Barrett, Erik Hall and Tony Maluso prepared the entries.
Contest results: Digital, print and podcasts | Writing and photography
Judges convened in late February, in person at the APSE Winter Conference in Las Vegas and remotely around the nation, to select the top entrants, reading 88 total pieces in the category, in addition to supplemental material. The committee determined 10 finalists, with each judge ranking the entries in order from 1 to 10. The final 10 were given to a second judging group in late February and March, ranking the entries from Nos. 1 to 10 in the same fashion.
The final rankings are determined by tallying the ballots. The top 10 are listed, with first-place votes in parentheses, along with links to the winning entries.
The contest is open to APSE members. Click here to join.
1. The Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism (3) 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
2. Brett Vito; Denton Record-Chronicle (1) 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
3. Colin Gay, Emiliee Smarr, Chase Goodbread, Gary Cosby Jr.; The Tuscaloosa News 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
4. Brad Schlossman; Grand Forks Herald (1) 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
5. Wyatt Wheeler; Springfield News-Leader 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
6. Christina Long; WholeHogSports.com (1) 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
7. Jane Allison Havsy; Daily Record (Rockaway, N.J.) 1 | 2
8. Joey Dwyer and Graham Baakko; Vanderbilt Commodores On SI 1 | 2 | 3
9. Matt Schuckman, Muddy River News 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
10. Tim Dumas; MetroWest Daily News 1 | 2 | 3
