The Academic All-America program is organized annually by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA); the program has been sponsored by various corporate partners. Capital One currently serves as the title sponsor of the Academic All-America program.

To be eligible for Academic All-America status, a student-athlete must be a varsity starter or key reserve, maintain a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.30 on a scale of 4.00, have received sophomore athletic and academic standing at his/her current institution and be nominated by his/her sports information director. Since 1952, CoSIDA has bestowed Academic All-America honors on more than 14,000 student-athletes in Divisions I, II, III and NAIA covering all NCAA championship sports.

Notre Dame now stands second all-time with 223 Academic All-Americans, trailing only Nebraska's 299, but well ahead of third-place MIT's 189. Since 2000, Notre Dame and Nebraska have led the way with Academic All-American selections. Nebraska has 112 in comparison to Notre Dame's 97.

The Irish have had more Academic All-Americans than any other school in baseball and women's soccer, while also cracking the top-10 in men's at-large (third), men's basketball (10th), football (third), softball (sixth), and men's track/cross country (ninth).

In the past few years, Notre Dame has had several distinguished Academic All-Americans. They include Tim Abromaitis (men's basketball; first team in 2010); Reggie Bentley (men's fencing; first team at large in 2010); Lauren Fowlkes (women's soccer; first team in 2010, second team in 2009); and David Ruffer (football; first team in 2010). In 2011, Manti Te'o (football; second team) and Andrew Hills (Men's cross country/track and field, third team) joined this prestigious group of student-athletes as well.