NACDA Directors' Cup

NACDA Directors' Cup

The NACDA Learfield Sports Directors' Cup is an award given annually by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics to the colleges and universities with the most success in collegiate athletics. Points for the NACDA Directors' Cup are based on order of finish in various National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) sponsored championships or, in the case of Division I Football, media-based polls. 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 National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) schools as well, each division receiving its own award.

The University of North Carolina won the award for best Division I collegiate athletics program in its inaugural year. Since then, Stanford University has won it eighteen straight years, winning eighteen out of the nineteen years it has been offered. Williams College has similarly dominated Division III, having won the award thirteen times.

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, Canadian Interuniversity Sport. Since then, Azusa Pacific University of California has assumed the mantle at the NAIA level, winning seven consecutive championships, though Simon Fraser remains competitive despite not fielding a full complement of NAIA teams.

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.