Laboratory For The Study Of Intercollegiate Athletics Ranks The Best College Sports Universities
The Excellence in Athletics Cup research and award program ranked 68 different athletic departments across eight different indices to establish a ranking of univeristy athletic programs from the big six conferences (SEC, Big 10, Big 12, ACC, Big East, Pac-10)
(PRWEB) August 31, 2004 -- A new award for college athletics that covers
numerous areas beyond won-loss records, such as graduation rates and spending
money efficiently, has been established by the Laboaratory for the Study of
Intercollegiate Athletics (LSIA) at Texas A&M University.
The award, called the Excellence in Athletics
Cup, was created to recognize all-around achievement in athletics and areas
associated with student-athletes, said Mike Sagas, director of the LSIA.
"Other awards, such as the National Association
of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) Cup, recognize schools for their
achievements on the field only in national level competition," Sagas explained.
"We created the Excellence in Athletics Cup to
recognize the all-around achievements of athletic departments, not just wins and
losses in NCAA competition. We think this award is more representative of what
makes up an outstanding athletic department."
Sagas said the award is based on a point system for such areas as conference
winning, post-season competition winning, excellence in graduation rates of
student-athletes compared to the overall undergraduate study body, excellence in
gender equity opportunities and scholarship allocations, and excellence in
efficiently using financial resources.
The
scoring system was based on information provided by NACDA, the Department of
Education and the NCAA. The award recognizes winners and ranks universities at
both the conference and national levels.
The
2004 winners in each of the six major NCAA conferences are Southeast Conference
(University of Georgia); the Big Ten Conference (University of Michigan); the
Atlantic Coast Conference (Duke University); the Big East Conference (Villanova
University); the Pac-10 Conference (Stanford University); and the Big 12
Conference (Texas A&M University).
The
award also established a national level champion in which conference winning
data was omitted and all 68 schools from the six conferences were compared. Penn
State University is the winner of the national award with 6,160 points, barely
edging out Stanford with 6,070 points, Sagas said.
"The purpose of the rankings is to recognize schools that are excellent in
academics and athletics," Sagas said.
"The
winning schools, and those that finished near the top of the rankings, are
universities that are successful in and out of the classroom. We hope that all
of the athletic departments analyzed in the 2004 program will use the data and
rankings to assess areas in which they can improve against their peer
institutions.
"Especially, there is a great
deal of improvement that could be made in the areas of gender equity and the
graduation rates of student-athletes, particularly African-American student
athletes."
For complete scoring results, go to
http://lsia.tamu.edu
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/8/prweb153587.htm