The Embry-Riddle University (Fla.) athletic program posted its best finish ever in the United States Sports Academy Directors’ Cup, taking seventh place overall. The Directors’ Cup is presented annually by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) to the best overall collegiate athletic program in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. The Eagles, who were in 27th place following the winter standings, made a strong move with its spring sports vaulting into the top 10 behind a third-place finish in men’s tennis, fifth in baseball, sixth in women’s golf and ninth in women’s tennis to finish with 555.5 points overall – 52.5 points and four spots ahead of Florida Sun Conference foe Savannah College of Art and Design (Ga.) which finished 11th, while Webber International (Fla.) was 65th, Flagler College (Fla.) was 68th and Northwood (Fla.) was 78th.
En route to the strong national finish, Embry-Riddle captured an unprecedented seventh consecutive Florida Sun Conference Commissioner’s Cup (formerly the All-Sports Trophy) despite the strong pressure from SCAD which narrowed the gap with the Eagles in the Cup standings average to just three tenths of a point 6.96 to 6.61. The Cup which recognizes the league’s most successful all-around athletic program certainly isn’t easy to maintain having to achieve high-levels of success for all of the Eagle sports, but it truly may be more difficult defending than earning ERAU’s first Cup. Every team in the FSC raises its level of play each time they play the Eagles, but its this pressure that motivates the Blue and Gold day-in and day-out.
In the 16-year history of the FSC, former member Nova Southeastern is closest to Embry-Riddle on the Cup list capturing the honors five times in 1992-93, 1994-95, 1995-96, 1996-97 and 1998-99.
The Cup points are awarded in descending order to the eight FSC members based on regular-season standings in the 15 conference sports (with men’s and women’s track completing its first year as a conference sport); eight for first place, seven for second place, and so on. In addition, one bonus point each is awarded to both the men’s and women’s basketball tournament champions. Total points are then divided by the number of sports sponsored by each institution to get the overall scores.
The Eagles had 12 of its 13 conference recognized sports earn top three finishes and six captured league titles including men’s cross country, men’s soccer, men’s basketball, baseball, men’s tennis and women’s golf.
2005-06 Commissioner's Cup Standings
| Sport |
ERAU |
SCAD |
WIU |
FC |
NU |
WSC |
FMU |
STU |
| WXC |
7 |
8 |
5 |
6 |
- |
4 |
2 |
3 |
| MXC |
8 |
6 |
4 |
5 |
- |
7 |
2 |
3 |
| MSOC |
8 |
7 |
6 |
5 |
2 |
4 |
- |
3 |
| WSOC |
5.5 |
8 |
3 |
3.5 |
7 |
3 |
- |
3 |
| VB |
6 |
8 |
5 |
7 |
2 |
4 |
1 |
3 |
| MBB* |
9 |
5.5 |
5.5 |
3 |
- |
4 |
7 |
- |
| WBB* |
- |
4 |
9 |
5 |
- |
6.5 |
6.5 |
- |
| BSB |
8 |
|
5 |
|
|
6.5 |
1 |
|
| MGOLF |
|
|
7 |
8 |
|
2 |
- |
3 |
| WGOLF |
8 |
|
4 |
5 |
|
- |
|
- |
| SB |
|
8 |
4 |
- |
7 |
5 |
- |
6 |
| MTRK |
6 |
- |
7 |
- |
- |
8 |
5 |
4 |
| WTRK |
6 |
|
5 |
- |
- |
7 |
|
- |
| MTEN |
|
4 |
|
5 |
6 |
2 |
- |
|
| WTEN |
|
8 |
|
|
5 |
2 |
|
4 |
| TOTALS |
90.5 |
86.5 |
79.5 |
63.5 |
42.0 |
65.0 |
32.5 |
39.0 |
| AVG. |
6.96 |
6.61 |
5.30 |
5.29 |
4.66 |
4.64 |
4.06 |
3.54 |
* one point bonus awarded to FSC Tournament Champion