LA MIRADA, Calif. — Using its highest spring-sports total in six years, Biola finished 11th out of over 300 NAIA school in the 2010-11 NACDA/Learfield Directors' Cup Standings announced on Friday. It was the highest the Eagles have finished in the program which ranks the most successful athletic departments in the country.
Biola recorded 582.50 points overall, just under its point total while finishing 12th last season. It was the Eagles' third-straight Top-20 finish and its sixth overall.
“A number of our teams had successful seasons and were able to reach their respective national tournament,” said Biola Athletic Director Dr. Dave Holmquist. “We are certainly proud of their successes and we continue to be very excited about all of our programs and the student-athletes that represent them.”
Biola closed out the spring season with 123 points thanks to 11th place finishes by the women's track and field team and the baseball team. The track team's finish was the best in program history while the baseball finish was the best in six seasons.
Biola was one of five GSAC teams in the top 11 overall. Azusa Pacific won its seventh-straight Directors' Cup title with 820.75 points with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (Fla.) placing second with 752.25 points. Fresno Pacific finished in fourth place with 719.75 points with California Baptist University placing sixth with 658.00 points. Concordia University (Calif.) finished in eighth place with 642 points with Biola finishing just 1.25 points behind 10th-place Oklahoma Christian University.
The Eagles scored 296.50 points during the winter season and tallied 163.00 points during the fall and ranked third after the first two seasons with 459.50 points.
Women's cross country led the way for Biola this season, scoring 90 points with its second-straight NAIA Runner-Up finish during the fall season. The winter season saw the women's track and field team pull down 80 points with a program-best fourth-place finish while men's basketball netted 70 points by reaching the NAIA Quarterfinals for the second-straight season.
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.
The complete 2010-11 NACDA/Learfield Directors' Cup Standings and more information on the program can be found at: http://www.nacda.com/directorscup/nacda-directorscup-current-scoring.html.
