April 8, 2011
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By Leigh Torbin
UCFAthletics.com
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - With the spring season still to go, UCF is comfortably on pace to ensure its best finish ever in NACDA's Learfield Sports Director's Cup standings which measures the overall athletic success of universities.
The Knights have earned 231.5 points to date, placing UCF 54th in the nation. UCF's school-record point total and placement for an entire academic year was 238 and 72nd, respectively, both set in 2003-04. The latest standings were released on April 7 following the conclusion of the basketball championships.
UCF's 54th-place standing leads all Conference USA schools and ranks sixth nationally for schools which are not members of automatically-qualifying BCS conferences. The Knights' placement is especially impressive considering that UCF sponsors just 16 varsity sports, far fewer than several of the top schools in the standings. The Director's Cup takes a total point score per school and does not average that point total over sports sponsored by that school.
Thus far in 2010-11, UCF has earned 54 points in football, 50 in men's soccer, 50 in women's soccer, 25 points in women's basketball and 52.5 points in women's indoor track and field. Having five sports score points already ties for the third-most of any year on record for the Knights. UCF had seven teams earn points in 2003-04 and six in 2004-05.
The Knights hope to further build upon this total in the spring where UCF's baseball, women's outdoor track and field and men's golf teams have already earned high national rankings and ample time remains for other sports to earn points as well.
First presented in 1993-94 as a venture between the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) and USA Today, the coveted Learfield Sports Director's Cup honors institutions who achieve broad-based success. Schools earn points based upon their success in NCAA postseason play except for football which uses a combination of final poll rankings and bowl game success.