FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Ohio State University’s Billy Price named the winner of the 2017 Rimington Trophy

New York, NY – December 7, 2017

Billy Price, gradated center for OSU, was awarded the 2017 Rimington Trophy, given to the nation’s most outstanding center, on Thursday, December 7 at the ESPNU Red Carpet Show preceding the ESPN Home Depot College Football Awards Show. Upon receiving the honor, Price said, “I am truly honored to win the Rimington Trophy. I want to thank the Boomer Esiason Foundation, the Rimington Trophy committee, and the voters for selecting me for this most prestigious honor. I also want to thank coach Meyer and Coach Studrawa, our strength coach Mick Marotti, and the entire Ohio State football program for all their efforts in helping me become the best football player and person I can be.”

Price, the 19^th recipient of the award, will by honored by the Rimington Trophy committee and the Boomer Esiason Foundation at the Rococo Theatre in Lincoln, Nebraska on January 13, 2018 – in the same city where trophy namesake and Nebraska All-American, Dave Rimington, earned his place in the College Football Hall of Fame.

The 2017 Rimington Trophy winner is also the 2017 Big Ten Conference Pace-Rimington Offensive Lineman of the Year and a two-time first-team all-Big Ten Conference honoree. Named a first-team All-American in 2016 by the American Football Coaches Association, Price was also named a first-team All-American on the Walter Camp team this evening. He is a finalist for the Senior CLASS Award, which honors student-athletes with notable achievements in four areas of excellence: community, classroom, character and competition, and he was a semifinalist for the Outland Trophy. The two-time team captain is in his fourth-year as a starter and has set the Ohio State school record 54 consecutive starts. He is the leader of an offensive line that has powered the Buckeyes’ offense to over 3,000 yards rushing and over 3,000 yards passing, the only offense in the nation to achieve that feat this season. Price’s degree is in business administration, and he has already been accepted into Ohio State’s prestigious Fisher College of Business MBA program. He is from Austintown, Ohio, and was an all-state player of the year for Austintown Fitch High School.

Notably, Price receives the award just one year after his former teammate, Pat Elflein, who went on to be drafted in the third round by the Minnesota Vikings. This is the first time since the Trophy was created in 2000 that a school has produced consecutive recipients.

To learn more about the Rimington Trophy Presentation, please visit: www.rimingtontrophy.com.

Selection Process

The winner of the Rimington Trophy is selected by determining the consensus All-American center pick from three existing All-America teams. While more than a dozen All-America teams are selected annually, the Rimington Trophy Committee uses these three prestigious teams to determine a winner:

·       Walter Camp Foundation (WCF)

·       Sporting News (SN)

·       Football Writers Association of America (FWAA)

About the Rimington Trophy

The Rimington Trophy is presented annually to the most outstanding center in NCAA Division I College Football. Since its inception, the seventeen-year old award has raised over $3.6 million for the Boomer Esiason Foundation, which is committed to finding a cure for cystic fibrosis and has raised over $130 million for the cystic fibrosis community.

Dave Rimington, the award's namesake, was a consensus first-team All-America center at the University of Nebraska in 1981 and 1982, during which time he became the John Outland Trophy's only two-time winner as the nation's finest college interior lineman. For more on the Rimington Trophy and a list of past recipients, visit www.rimingtontrophy.com

The Rimington Trophy is a member of the National College Football Awards Association (NCFAA), which encompasses the most prestigious awards in college football. The 22 awards boast 742 years of tradition-selection excellence. Visit www.NCFAA.org to learn more about our story.

Rimington Trophy Contact:

Michelle Pelini

646.292.7946

[email protected]