The University of North Georgia (UNG) swept top honors from U.S. Army Cadet Command this fall, boasting both the No. 1 overall ROTC cadet out of 5,538 nationally and the No. 1 National Guard commissioning cadet out of 1,491.
Benjamin Smith, a senior from Decatur, Tenn., is the top overall graduating Army ROTC cadet for the 2025-26 academic year, and Kyle Sanders, a senior from Marietta, achieved the No. 1 Army National Guard ranking and No. 11 overall.
Smith and Sanders led a UNG-record 37 Distinguished Military Graduates (DMG) this fall, by far the most among senior military colleges (SMC). DMG totals for the other SMCs were:
- Texas A&M University: 28
- The Citadel: 26
- Virginia Military Institute: 23
- Virginia Tech: 16
- Norwich University: 12
UNG had three of the top 100 overall Army ROTC cadets and eight of the top 100 among the Army National Guard commissioning cadets.