“Final Honors Revealed: 2025 MIKEY Awards Close with Tiger Cup, Top GPA Team, and Outstanding Male & Female Volunteers of the Year”
The 2025 MIKEY Awards came to a grand and memorable conclusion with the presentation of some of the most meaningful honors of the night—celebrating not just athletic excellence, but academic achievement, team spirit, and the selfless service of student-athletes to their communities. From the high-energy start of the event to the final curtain call, the awards encapsulated everything the LSU Athletics community holds dear. And as the spotlight fell on the final recipients—the Tiger Cup winners, the team with the highest GPA, and the Male and Female Volunteers of the Year—it was clear that these accolades represented something far greater than trophies. They symbolized discipline, resilience, and the powerful ripple effect of giving back.
The MIKEY Awards, long heralded as one of the most anticipated nights in LSU Athletics, again lived up to their billing in 2025. For student-athletes, coaches, support staff, and fans alike, it’s a night when the LSU sports family gathers not just to celebrate wins on the scoreboard, but to honor the deeper victories that unfold off the field. And while athletic feats dominate the headlines throughout the year, this ceremony reminds everyone that true greatness often manifests in the classroom and in the quiet corners of service work, where hands are extended, lives are impacted, and character is shaped.
The Tiger Cup, a coveted institutional honor, is awarded to the athletic program that demonstrates overall excellence across competition, academics, community involvement, and team culture. Winning the Tiger Cup isn’t simply about being dominant in your sport. It’s about embodying the totality of the LSU student-athlete ideal. In 2025, the honor went to a program that checked every single box with conviction and consistency. Throughout the year, they brought intensity and integrity into every aspect of their work. Their performance on the field drew praise across the country, but their deeper legacy may lie in their behind-the-scenes work. Their athletes led campus initiatives, maintained top-tier academic standings, and carried themselves with a professionalism that made LSU proud on every front.
In many ways, the Tiger Cup is a mirror of the collective values LSU preaches throughout the year. For the coaching staff of the winning program, it was an emotional night. The athletes embraced on stage, some with tears in their eyes—not for the victory itself, but for the journey that led them there. It was a culmination of years of discipline, late nights, grueling practices, difficult setbacks, and unshakable camaraderie. And while each athlete celebrated individually, the sense of shared accomplishment was undeniable. They stood not just as competitors, but as leaders, mentors, scholars, and role models.
Equally significant was the award for Highest Team GPA—a prize that reflects the dedication and academic fortitude required to balance Division I athletics with university-level coursework. For LSU’s student-athletes, the grind is real. Between practices, travel schedules, games, and mandatory study hours, staying on top of assignments and maintaining a high GPA is no small feat. That’s why this award carries so much weight. It represents sacrifice and time management, sleepless nights and personal accountability.
This year’s academic champion soared above their peers with a team-wide GPA that left no doubt about their commitment to excellence in the classroom. Their success wasn’t fueled by a few standout students—it was the result of a culture built on pushing each other to be better, holding one another accountable, and refusing to let academic standards slip even when the athletic calendar reached its peak. For many of the athletes on this team, the award validated years of personal grit and quiet determination. Parents, professors, tutors, and advisors shared in their pride. In that moment, the MIKEY stage transformed into a podium of academic glory, a moment of tribute to every student-athlete who had said no to easy roads and yes to the long-term vision of academic achievement.
But perhaps no awards resonated more deeply on a human level than the honors for Male and Female Volunteers of the Year. While points, wins, and GPAs are easily quantifiable, the impact of volunteering is harder to measure—but infinitely more profound. LSU’s community outreach programs have grown exponentially over the last decade, becoming cornerstones of the university’s athletic identity. Through food drives, school visits, mentorship programs, and health campaigns, LSU athletes have become ambassadors of change across Baton Rouge and beyond.
The 2025 recipients of the Volunteer of the Year awards weren’t just participants in this movement—they were leaders. They didn’t log volunteer hours for the resume boost or public recognition. They did it because they saw need and responded with action. From early morning school drop-ins where they read to children, to late-night shifts helping prepare meals for the underserved, these student-athletes gave their time with humility and joy. Their names were called to thunderous applause. Their stories inspired standing ovations.
For the Female Volunteer of the Year, the road had been particularly powerful. Balancing an intensive athletic schedule with a tireless dedication to service, she had become a staple in community outreach programs across multiple parishes. Her teammates spoke about her influence not just in the locker room, but in how she challenged them to get involved. Whether organizing donation drives or quietly mentoring at-risk youth, she never made the work about her. And that selflessness made her impact even greater. During her acceptance, she made it clear: her award belonged to the communities she served and the people who welcomed her into their lives.
The Male Volunteer of the Year took a similar approach. A standout in his sport, he had already won recognition for his on-field achievements—but on this night, he stood tall for something even more enduring. His volunteer work spanned everything from mental health advocacy to youth sports mentorship. He used his platform with wisdom and empathy, recognizing the weight his voice carried. Teammates and administrators lauded his leadership and vulnerability. In his brief remarks, he focused not on what he had done, but on what he had learned. Volunteering, he said, had changed his life far more than he had ever expected. It had deepened his gratitude, sharpened his purpose, and reminded him why his LSU experience mattered.
As the MIKEY Awards came to a close, the final honorees stood on stage with the lights dimmed slightly and a video montage playing behind them—highlighting moments from the past year of academic triumphs, selfless service, and inspiring team milestones. The crowd stood in appreciation, not just for the winners, but for what their journeys represented. In the hush of that final standing ovation, the unspoken message was clear: LSU Athletics is about more than just championships. It’s about growing leaders. It’s about being excellent on the field and extraordinary off it. It’s about holding onto a vision of success that includes character, compassion, and community.
The 2025 MIKEY Awards didn’t just recognize the best athletes. They honored the best people. And in doing so, they reminded everyone watching that LSU’s greatest legacy won’t be written in final scores, but in the lives its student-athletes touch long after the games are over. That’s what the Tiger Cup, the Highest Team GPA, and the Volunteer of the Year awards symbolize—something timeless, something transformative, and something far greater than gold.
