BEVERLY, Mass. — Following a successful fall sports season, the Endicott College varsity athletics program is ranked 51st overall out of more than 400 NCAA Division III schools in the 2021-22 Learfield IMG Directors' Cup.
The Learfield IMG Directors' Cup, which continues through the winter and spring seasons, annually recognizes the top collegiate varsity athletic programs for overall excellence.
Standings for the Directors' Cup are based on a points system that rewards a school's finish in up to 18 sports — nine men and nine women — in NCAA Championships.
Included in the fall rankings are the following sports: men's and women's cross country, field hockey, football, men's and women's soccer, women's volleyball, and men's water polo.
Endicott compiled 103 points among three programs to earn its No. 51 overall ranking, which marks the Gulls' second-highest finish ever in the fall standings.
Field hockey highlighted the trio scoring 53 points by advancing to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Meanwhile, football and women's volleyball both tallied 25 points for their respective NCAA Tournament first round appearances to conclude Endicott's scoring in the fall Learfield IMG Directors' Cup standings.
NEED TO KNOW
- Endicott is ranked No. 13 in the New England region and first among all Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) programs in this year's fall standings.
- The Gulls' highest finish in the Learfield IMG Directors' Cup fall standings occurred in 2006-07 when Endicott ranked No. 38 overall (114 points).
- During the 2006 fall season, women's soccer advanced to the "Sweet 16" of the NCAA Tournament, while women's volleyball made it to the second round (both program bests).
- Endicott's highest finish in the Learfield IMG Directors' Cup year-end standings is No. 28, which took place in 2013-14.
- The first set of winter standings and final standings will be announced on March 31 and June 16, respectively.
ABOUT THE LEARFIELD IMG DIRECTORS' CUP
The Learfield IMG College 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 NCAA Championships.
For NCAA Division III, whose Learfield Directors' Cup program started in 1995-96, sports included in a program's score must include men's basketball, men's soccer, women's basketball, and women's soccer, which is new to the scoring structure as of four years ago.
Previously, the top nine men's and women's scoring teams could be counted; now, regardless of whether a school's soccer and basketball teams qualify for the NCAAs, they must be counted.
Then, the next highest 14 (max.) sports scored for each institution, regardless of gender, are used in the standings to compute an overall score.
The overall champion is the institution that records the highest number of points in their division's Directors' Cup standings.
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(Photo Credit - Rob Ackerman '20)
