Five years after winning the award for the first time, Eastern Washington University has again won the Big Sky Conference Presidents’ Cup presented by Red Lion Hotels for the 2014-15 school year, the league office announced July 19.
The Eagles won a tiebreaker over runner-up Montana State, while two-time defending champion Northern Arizona was third.
The Presidents’ Cup is unique in collegiate athletics in that it honors the dedication to the academic side of the student-athlete experience. Overall athletic success is combined with team grade point averages, academic progress rates (APR) and all-conference performers with grade point averages of at least 3.0.
“There is a tremendous amount of credit that is due to our student-athletes, coaches, staff and administration for winning this award for a second time,” Eastern athletics director Bill Chaves said. “This culminates a year that will go down as one of the most successful all-around seasons in our Division I era.”
The Eagles topped the Presidents’ Cup standings with a first-place finish in academics. Eastern had the conference’s second-best grade point average (3.34), was second in the NCAA’s Academic Progress Rate (APR) and had 34 All-Conference student athletes with a 3.0 GPA or better to also rank second.
Every Big Sky school averaged at least a 3.06 team GPA. Idaho State was first at 3.35 followed by EWU at 3.34. Out of 161 teams from the 11 full members (not including Idaho, Cal Poly and UC Davis), 134 of them had at least a 3.0 GPA. Last year it was 127 out of 160.
“It really was a remarkable year,” EWU President Mary Cullinan said. “I’m incredibly proud of our student-athletes.”
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