New Orleans, Louisiana - Williams College (Mass.) defended its title as the best athletics program in NCAA Division III competition by winning its 10^th U.S. Sports Academy Directors' Cup, the prestigious award presented annually by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA), United States Sports Academy and USA TODAY to the best overall collegiate athletics programs in the country.

The 2005-06 U.S. Sports Academy Directors' Cup winners were announced at NACDA's 41^st Annual Convention in New Orleans, Louisiana, and the four winning institutions -- one in each of the NCAA Divisions (I, II, and III), and the NAIA -- were awarded with their U.S. Sports Academy Directors' Cups.

Williams College won its 10^th U.S. Sports Academy Directors' Cup in the last 11 years and recorded 920.5 points, 130.25 points ahead of runner-up College of New Jersey.

Williams was the national championship in women's rowing. Eleven additional teams recorded top 10 finishes: women's cross country (2^nd), women's indoor track and field (2^nd), women's swimming and diving (3^rd), men's outdoor track and field (4^th), men's tennis (4^th), women's tennis (5^th), men's soccer (5^th), men's swimming (5^th), softball (7^th), women's field hockey (9^th) and women's basketball (9^th). The Ephs also placed 15^th in skiing and 35^th in wrestling. Williams scored in five men's and the maximum of nine women's sports and averaged 66 points per sport.

Developed as a joint effort between USA TODAY and NACDA, the U.S. Sports Academy Directors' Cup program is the only all-sports competition that recognizes the institution in each of the four categories with the best overall athletics program.

Completing the year in second place was the College of New Jersey with 790.25 points. The Lions won the national title in women's lacrosse and placed second in women's soccer; fifth in men's soccer; ninth in women's cross country, women's field hockey and baseball; 10^th in women's indoor track and field and men's cross country; 12^th in men's swimming; 13^th in men's indoor track and field; 19^th in wrestling; and 33^rd in women's basketball and swimming.

Rounding out the top five were Middlebury College (Vt.), in third place with 758 points; Emory University (Ga.), in fourth with 751.5 points; and Cortland State University (N.Y.), in fifth place with 654 points.