(College Station, TX) - For the third straight year, Utah State and Louisiana Tech have finished in the top 10 of the Excellence in Management Cup as presented by Texas A&M's Laboratory for the Study of Intercollegiate Athletics (LSIA).
Utah State, the national champion in 2009, was fourth, while Louisiana Tech came in at sixth. Boise State was eighth and Fresno State placed 13th.
The purpose of the Excellence in Management Cup is to determine which athletic departments win the most championships in accordance to financial expenditures. The Excellence in Management Cup awards athletic departments that win the most conference and national championships, while at the same time have the lowest expenses.
For the third straight year, the EM Cup results have shown
that major universities may not be running as economically sound as their
smaller counterparts. Nine of the top
ten universities in the final standings are from non-BCS affiliated
universities.
The Cup also recognized conference winners participating in
Division I sports. Northwestern is named conference winner for the Big Ten,
Florida is the top program in the SEC for the second straight year and Notre
Dame took honors for the Big East.
Other conference winners include the University of Southern
California (Pac 10), the University of Tulsa (Conference USA), BYU (Mountain West),
the University of Maryland (ACC), Middle Tennessee State (Sun Belt) and Utah
State (WAC).
Scoring is calculated in a formula that accounts for total
athletic department spending, number of sports played and the number of
championships won by each Division I university. Because of the difficulty in winning national
championships, the formula was adjusted last year to place more emphasis on
programs that exceed on the national stage.