Each year, Carolina Athletics honors two varsity squads – one men's team and one women's team – with the Carolina Academic Excellence Award, recognizing the most outstanding academic performance over the previous school year.
With the 2020-21 academic year, the men's fencing team made it four-for-four and has won the award in each year of its existence.
After women's cross country won the first two years, two new Tar Heel teams have been honored in the past two years: women's tennis in 2019-20 and now women's golf for 2020-21.
Honored teams have their names added to a trophy in the Loudermilk Center and also receive an Old Well trophy to keep through the following year.