Sports News: Spring 2006
Wednesday, June 28, 2006

MORAVIAN FINISHES 98th IN 2006 UNITED STATES SPORTS ACADEMY DIRECTORS’ CUP

NEW ORLEANS, La. --- The Moravian College softball team helped the Greyhounds to a 98th place finish with 162 points in the 2005-06 NCAA Division III United States Sports Academy Directors’ Cup Final Standings.

Moravian is third of three schools in the Middle Atlantic States Collegiate Athletic Conference that received points. Messiah College is 15th with 474.25 points while Widener University is 65th with 232.5 points. Beginning in 2004-05, the rankings were limited to the top 100 teams.

Moravian was not listed among the top 100 schools in 2004-05, the school was ranked 162nd in 2003-04. The Greyhounds were 80th 2002-03, 82nd in 2001-02, 94th in 2000-01, 84th in 1999-2000, tied for 101st the two previous years, tied for 141st in 1996-97 and 114th overall in the first year of competition, 1995-96.

For a school to receive points, sports must compete in the NCAA National Championships (for individual sports) and the NCAA Tournament (for team sports).

Moravian earned 64 points from the softball team’s tie for ninth in the NCAA Division III Tournament, 50 points from the women’s soccer team’s second round appearance in its first-ever NCAA Tournament berth, 25 points from the women’s basketball team playing a first round game in the NCAA Tournament and 23 points from the men’s and field team at the 2006 Indoor National Championships.

Williams College (Mass.) defended its title as the best athletics program in NCAA Division III competition by winning its 10th U.S. Sports Academy Directors' Cup, the prestigious award presented annually by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA), United States Sports Academy and USA TODAY to the best overall collegiate athletics programs in the country.

The 2005-06 U.S. Sports Academy Directors' Cup winners were announced at NACDA's 41st Annual Convention in New Orleans, Louisiana, and the four winning institutions -- one in each of the NCAA Divisions (I, II, and III), and the NAIA -- were awarded with their U.S. Sports Academy Directors' Cups.

Williams College won its 10th U.S. Sports Academy Directors' Cup in the last 11 years and recorded 920.5 points, 130.25 points ahead of runner-up College of New Jersey.

Developed as a joint effort between USA TODAY and NACDA, the U.S. Sports Academy Directors' Cup program is the only all-sports competition that recognizes the institution in each of the four categories with the best overall athletics program.
Completing the year in second place was the College of New Jersey with 790.25 points. Rounding out the top five were Middlebury College (Vt.), in third place with 758 points; Emory University (Ga.), in fourth with 751.5 points; and Cortland State University (N.Y.), in fifth place with 654 points.

Parts of Release are from the NACDA release that can be found at http://nacda.cstv.com/sports/directorscup/spec-rel/061906aah.html.