ITHACA, N.Y. -- Watch senior co-captain Jelani Taylor at the 62nd NFF Annual Awards Dinner at the New York Hilton Midtown in New York City tonight. Taylor is one of 12 finalists for the 30th William V. Campbell Trophy, given to the absolute best football scholar-athlete in the nation for his combined academic success, football performance and exemplary leadership.

Watch the Campbell Trophy presentation live beginning at 8:30 p.m.

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Cornell senior football player Jelani Taylor has been named one of 12 finalists for the 2019 William V. Campbell Trophy it was announced today by the National Football Foundation and the College Hall of Fame. The award annually recognizes an individual as the absolute best football scholar-athlete in the nation for his combined academic success, football performance and exemplary leadership.

Taylor and each of the other 11 finalists will receive an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship as a member of the 2019 NFF National Scholar-Athlete Class, presented by Fidelity Investments, and they will travel to New York City for the 62nd NFF Annual Awards Dinner on Tuesday, Dec. 10, where their accomplishments will be highlighted in front of one of the most powerful audiences in all of sports. At the event, one member of the class will be declared the winner of the 30th William V. Campbell Trophy® Presented by Mazda and have his postgraduate scholarship increased to $25,000. The event will take place at the New York Hilton Midtown and will be streamed live, with specific broadcast information to be announced at a later date.

On the field, Taylor has been a force as a three-year starter at safety. The team's leading tackler in 2019, Taylor ranks fourth in the Ivy League with 7.0 stops per game and first in passes defended (nine) while adding 1.5 tackles for a loss, two interceptions and seven pass breakups. He was exceptional in the game at Harvard, posting a season-best 12 tackles, including a half-tackle for loss, along with an interception and three pass breakups. 

Taylor was even better last week in the 37-35 comeback win over Brown. The senior posted a game-high nine tackles, intercepted a pass and broke up three others. He intercepted a first quarter pass and made a stop on a two-point conversion, made a fourth down stop early in the second to turn the ball over on downs, sprung Eric Stoxstill-Diggs' 46-yard punt return for a touchdown with the key block on the return, and broke up three fourth quarter passes, including one on third down to force a Brown punt. Two of his tackles were on special teams, with one coming inside the Brown 5.

The 5-11, 195-pound native of Beecher, Mich., enters the weekend with 153 tackles, including 4.5 for a loss and 2.0 sacks, 26 pass breakups, a pair of forced fumbles and two interceptions in 33 games. The senior co-captain was a first-team Google Cloud Academic All-District pick as a junior after leading the team in tackles (72) and passes defended (nine). Three times he has broken up four passes in a game, one off a school record.

Aside from dominating on the field, Taylor has maintained a 3.94 grade point average in Hotel Administration. A five-time Dean's List member and 2018 Academic All-Ivy League pick, he tutored and advised students in Financial Accounting, Quantitative Analysis, and Anthropology of Money, serving student-athletes and multicultural students within the Hotel School with a goal to help them excel in their coursework. 

A member of the 400 Club for student-athletes with a semester GPA of 4.0, he was selected to receive the PSP Excellence Award and claimed the department's Richie Moran Award, given to a senior student-athlete at Cornell who has distinguished himself/herself through "academics, athletics and ambassadorship." Taylor served as a summer intern in the office of Cornell's Executive Vice President and CFO. A two-year member of the football team's Leadership Cabinet, he was chosen to represent Cornell at the Ivy League Football media day at ESPN.

Taylor is the second Cornellian (Jeff Mathews '14 in 2013) and 17th Ivy League player to be named a finalist. No Ivy League player, nor any player from the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) have taken home the award, which was first presented in 1990. 

Nominated by their schools, which are limited to one nominee each, candidates for the Campbell Trophy® Presented by Mazda must be a senior or graduate student in their final year of playing eligibility, have a GPA 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.

The NFF National Scholar-Athlete program, launched in 1959, became the first initiative in history to award postgraduate scholarships for combined athletic, academic and leadership abilities. Including the 2019 recipients, the NFF has honored 866 individuals with National Scholar-Athlete Awards. The honorees have used the financial support to earn more than 150 medical degrees, 100 law degrees, 80 MBAs and 43 PhDs. Continuing their excellence on the field, more than 200 recipients have played in the NFL with an average career of six seasons or double the length of a typical NFL player. Past recipients also include 13 Rhodes Scholars.

First awarded in 1990, The William V. Campbell Trophy® Presented by Mazda is named in honor of the late Bill Campbell, the former CEO and chairman of Intuit, a former player and head coach at Columbia University, and the 2004 recipient of the NFF's Gold Medal. The award comes with a 25-pound bronze trophy and a $7,000 increase in postgraduate funds for a total scholarship of $25,000. A total distribution of $223,000 in scholarships will be awarded Dec. 10, pushing the program's all-time distributions to more than $11.7 million.

Selected from a nationwide pool of 185 exceptional semifinalists from among all NCAA divisions and the NAIA, the 12 finalists are: