LA MIRADA, Calif. --- Thanks to a successful winter sports season, Biola moved up to third in the Learfield Sports Director's Cup standings as announced by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) on Thursday morning.
The Eagles match their highest-ever ranking in the Director's Cup standings, which is designed to measure the overall success of a school's athletic department among the over 300 NAIA schools. Biola has 459.5 points overall, just 40 behind second place Lindenwood University (Mo.). Azusa Pacific is in first with 691.5 points.
Biola received the most points from women's indoor track and field during the winter season as the Eagles finished a program-best fourth and earned 80 points in the Director's Cup standings. Men's Basketball reached the NAIA Quarterfinals for the second-straight season and pulled down 70 points for Biola.
The Biola swim program netted a total of 121.5 points with the women's team placing eighth overall and earning 64.5 points while the men scored 57 points for an 11th place finish.
The women's basketball team added 25 points with its third-straight appearance in the NAIA National Championships.
Biola recorded a winter total of 296.5 points after scoring 163 points to wrap up the fall season in ninth place overall.
Last year, the Eagles finished 12th overall in the final Director's Cup standings after finishing the winter in third place. It was Biola's highest finish in the cup standings. The Eagles have been ranked in the top 20 of the Director's Cup in the last two years and five times overall.
The Learfield Sports Directors' Cup was developed as a joint effort between the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) and USA Today. Points are awarded based on each institution's finish in up to 14 sports--seven women's and seven men's.
The Director Cup program's philosophy is: “A program that honors institutions maintaining a broad-based program, achieving success in many sports, both men's and women's, in which all sports that the NCAA or NAIA offers a championship, along with Division I-A football, and all student-athletes that compete in those sports, are treated equally,” according to the Learfield Sports Directors Cup website.
Click here for the complete final NAIA Learfield Sports Directors' Cup Standings and click here to learn more about the Directors' Cup program.
