Following the 2009 NCAA fall championship season, NAU Athletics is tied with Boise State for the 44th rank in the Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup fall standings after scoring 105 points in the season. This makes NAU the top-ranked school in the Big Sky Conference and the state of Arizona, ahead of ASU in 64th and UA in 91st.

The Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup was developed in 1993-94 by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) and USA Today as a way to rank the nation’s collegiate athletic departments. According to the scoring system, each institution receives points based on national finishes in up to 20 sports — 10 women’s and 10 men’s.

“I like the fact that we’re in 44th place out of the 323 Division I schools,” said Athletic Director Jim Fallis. “If the Directors’ Cup ever did scoring based on the number of sports you sponsor, we’d be even higher up the totem pole. It’s amazing, and it’s a nice reflection on the quality and depth of our department.”

In the fall, the Lumberjacks received points from a pair of national finishes by two programs. The men’s cross country team completed its season with a fourth-place finish at the NCAA Cross Country Championships, scoring 80 points for NAU, while the soccer team earned 25 points with its second consecutive Big Sky Championship and a trip to the NCAA Women’s College Cup.

“We’ve always been competitive as a program, but we just weren’t able to get over that hump,” said soccer head coach Andre Luciano. “But across the board, all of our teams have been successful. This athletic department has always had success, but in the last couple years, we’ve had a lot of conference championships spread out among a lot of different programs.”

NAU Athletics has ranked in the top 100 in six of the last seven years, and 11 of the previous 13, with a school-best 58th rank finish in the 1996-97 season — all despite a much smaller budget to work with than larger schools. In addition, NAU Athletics sponsors 15 sports (six men’s and nine women’s), leaving out many NCAA-sponsored sports such as baseball, softball, lacrosse and wrestling.

“Despite being a smaller school and having a smaller budget, we’ve had teams finish nationally which have earned us points that have ranked us among the top 100,” said Assistant Athletic Director Steve Shaff. “It’s a tremendous accomplishment for a school of our size to compete with larger schools.”

NAU Athletics could be headed up in the rankings, with the track and field team toward the end of its season and the golf team coming off a Big Sky Championship. Regardless, Fallis said he sees the ranking as a symbol of great things in the athletics department.

“Our mantra is ‘academics, athletics and service,’” Fallis said. “If we do those three things right, everything else will fall into place. Our student athletes have bought into that philosophy, and they realize they are the face of the department. The people and the programs are the key, and our ranking speaks volumes about our department.”