Sports News: Spring 2004

Thursday, June 17, 2004

MORAVIAN FINISHES 162ND IN 2004 UNITED STATES
SPORTS ACADEMY DIRECTORS’ CUP

BETHLEHEM, PA --- The Moravian College softball team helped the Greyhounds to A 162nd place finish with 90 points in the 2003-04 NCAA Division III United States Sports Academy Directors’ Cup Final Standings.

Moravian was one of 283 Division III schools that scored points this season and ninth among the 13 schools in the Middle Atlantic Conference that received points.

This year was the first time in the last five years that Moravian hasn’t been in the top 100 of the final United States Sports Academy Directors’ Cup standings. The Greyhounds were 80th last year, 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 all 90 of its points with the softball team’s national runner-up finish at the 2004 NCAA Division III World Series.

Developed as a joint effort between USA Today and NACDA, the United States 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.

While Williams College (MA) won the United States Sports Academy Directors’ Cup for NCAA Division III competition for the sixth straight year and eighth time in nine years, the 2003-04 winners in the other categories include: Division I - Stanford University; Division II – Grand Valley State University (MI); NAIA – Simon Fraser University (B.C.).

NACDA also awarded each of the second through fifth place institutions in all four divisions with Sears Directors’ Cup plaques, commemorating their program's dedication to athletics greatness. This year's runner-up institutions in the NCAA Division III include: Emory University (GA), Middlebury (VT) College, The College of New Jersey and the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

Of the 430 eligible colleges and universities in the NCAA Division III, a total of 283 (66 percent) scored points in the United States Sports Academy Directors’ Cup competition. Complete final rankings on all of these institutions are available on NACDA's Web site at www.nacda.com.

NACDA, which is now in its 39th year, is the professional and educational association for more than 6,100 college athletics directors, associates, assistants and conference commissioners at more than 1,600 institutions throughout the United States, Mexico and Canada. Through its series of management seminars, clinics and workshops and publication of the bi-monthly magazine Athletics Administration, NACDA offers educational opportunities to its members. More than 1,200 athletics administrators annually attend the NACDA Convention. Additionally, the Association operates the NACDA Directors' Cup program, which honors the all-sports champion in each of the NCAA Divisions -- I, II, III -- and the NAIA, for a total of four trophies.