NACDA Directors' Cup


The NACDA Learfield IMG College Directors' Cup, known informally by its original name of the Directors' Cup, is an award given annually by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics to the colleges and universities in the United States with the most success in collegiate athletics. Points for the NACDA Directors' Cup are based on order of finish in various championships sponsored by the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics or, in the case of Division I Football, media-based polls. A first-place finish in a sport earns 100 points, second place 90 points, third place 85 points, and lesser values for lower finishes. The award originated in 1993 and was presented to NCAA Division I schools only. In 1995 it was extended to Division II, Division III, and NAIA schools as well, each division receiving its own award.
The University of North Carolina won the award in its inaugural year, but since then, Stanford University has won the Division I award for 25 straight years. Williams College has had similar success in Division III, having won the award 21 of the 23 times it has been awarded for Division III. In Division II, UC Davis won six of the first eight awards, but its athletic program moved to Division I in 2003 and Grand Valley State won the award the following eight years. The NAIA division was similarly dominated by Simon Fraser University of British Columbia in its early years, but in 2002, SFU transferred several of its sports programs to Canada's college athletics federation, then known as Canadian Interuniversity Sport and now as U Sports. SFU has since become a full member of NCAA Division II. From 2004 to 2012, Azusa Pacific University assumed the mantle at the NAIA level, winning eight consecutive championships before moving to Division II in the 2012–2013 season.
The physical award is a Waterford crystal trophy. Prior to 2003, the sponsor of the NACDA Directors' Cup was retail merchandiser Sears, and the award was known as the Sears Cup. Beginning in the 2003–2004 season, the sponsor was the United States Sports Academy. In 2007–2008, Learfield Sports assumed the sponsorship of the Directors' Cup and Learfield Sports rebranded as simply Learfield in 2016.

Past winners

UniversityTop 10 rankings
Stanford26
Florida26
UCLA23
North Carolina21
Michigan20
Texas20
USC17

NCAA Division II

NCAA Division III

NAIA