Take the title in one sport for four years running and your school is considered to be among the great. So how do you describe a school that takes an award designated for the year's most successful school in all sports?
That's what Ball State's women athletics did, winning the 2003 Jacoby Trophy. The trophy is given to the school with the best combined athletic year of all its sports teams by scores determined by set criteria.
Ball State athletic director Bubba Cunningham said he was pleased with the success of the women's teams in earning the award and credited the honor to the pride of all involved with women's athletics.
"It's a wonderful accomplishment," Cunningham said. "I think (former director Andrea) Seger should get a lot of credit for building a terrific program."
Seger is the first director of the intercollegiate athletic program under its present form of men and women's programs being combined in 1995. She added two women's teams to Ball State's roster, a move that helps the university in terms of better standing to win the Jacoby.
In order to win the Jacoby, a school's six highest finishes in MAC championships are tallied. Three of the six, however, are required to come from basketball, softball and volleyball. Ball State has 12 programs, and that number helps a lot at season's end.
"We have more programs than anybody else," Cunningham said. "We didn't do as well this year in a particular sport, but we did even better in others."
Cunningham credited the coaches for the award, citing several examples from the consistency in the volleyball program to large win totals in basketball.
"It all starts with coaching," he said. "We have really strong coaches. That's what makes all the difference. It goes through recruiting and then there's performance on the field."
However, Cunningham showed concern over the future of the Jacoby's status. There is a planned change in the scoring of some of the smaller events that could lose the advantage of having extra programs.
He gave an example of the field hockey team, of which Ball State is one of six participants. Since the assigned point scale for the Jacoby goes from 13 to one, a last-place team would receive eight points. However, a new standard deviation rule is going to be implemented where schools would still receive 13 points, but last place would be worth only one.
"That will hurt us because in some of those sports, we could even pick up six points," Cunningham said.
The importance of the Jacoby is great to Cunningham because it helps to swell the amount of recognition Ball State receives. In terms of spreading the word of Ball State, athletics can play a huge role in its achievement.
"Success breeds success, so anytime any one of our teams do well, it's good for the institution," he said. "Any individual or team success that's associated with Ball State raises the profile."
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