Houston’s Jamal Shead and Texas’ Madisen Skinner were named the Big 12 Male and Female Athletes of the Year for the 2023-24 season. Shead captured the award in the Cougars’ inaugural year in the league while Skinner is the second consecutive Longhorn to collect the honor and the 16^th overall.
 
Nominees were submitted by Big 12 schools and selected based on athletic performance during the 2023-24 school year by a media panel. Student-athletes were required to be in good academic standing and had to be from a league-sponsored sport.
 
The 14 schools that competed during the 2023-24 academic year were eligible.
 
Shead took Houston to the top of the league in UH’s debut Big 12 season, finishing alone in first place during the regular season at 15-3. His efforts led to being tabbed as the Conference’s Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year, becoming the first player in league history to win both awards in the same season.
 
The Manor, Texas native was named National Defensive Player of the Year by the Naismith Awards, National Association of Basketball Coaches, Field of 68 and Andy Katz. The First Team All-Big 12 member was honored as a unanimous consensus First Team All-American nationally.
 
Shead finished the season as the only student-athlete in NCAA Division I to rank among the top 26 national leaders in assists per game, steals per game and assist-turnover ratio.
 
The member of Houston’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee finished his career as the second-winningest player in school history with a 120-18 career record and is the only player in Houston’s storied history to record 100+ wins, 1,300 points, 600+ assists and 200+ steals during his career.
 
Skinner guided Texas to its second-straight NCAA Championship and Skinner’s third title of her career (Kentucky, 2020). She was named the 2023 NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player and is the first volleyball player to be named the Conference’s Athlete of the Year since 2009.
 
The outside hitter from Katy, Texas earned the CWSA Honda Sport Award for Volleyball and claimed VolleyballMag.com National Player of the Year honors along with being named the 2023 Big 12 Player of the Year.
 
Skinner was also awarded American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) First Team All-America honors and was named the 2023 AVCA Southwest Region Player of the Year.
 
She procured First Team Academic All-Big 12 honors and was selected to the Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll in the fall.
 
The full list of each school’s nominees can be found below.
 
2023-24 Big 12 Athletes of the Year Nominees
Baylor - Johnny Keefer and Alexis Brown
BYU - Kenneth Rooks and Brecken Mozingo
UCF - RJ Harvey and Rayniah Jones
Cincinnati - Ty Gingerich and Juliette Laracuente-Huebner
Houston - Jamal Shead and Kelly-Ann Beckford
Iowa State - David Carr and Sydney Willits
Kansas - Clayton Simms and Camryn Turner
K-State - Cooper Beebe and Ayoka Lee
Oklahoma - Drake Stoops and Jordan Bowers
Oklahoma State - Ollie Gordon II and Lexi Kilfoyl
TCU - Jack Pinnington and Mattie Dukes
Texas - Leo Neugebauer and Madisen Skinner
Texas Tech - Terrence Jones and Hannah Anderson
West Virginia - Zach Frazier and JJ Quinerly