CLEVELAND, Ohio —For the third time in the last four years, Southeastern has placed in the top ten in the NAIA Learfield Directors' Cup. The Fire finished sixth in the 2025-26 year after back-to-back fifth place finishes in 2022-23 and 2023-24.
Ranked 31st after the completion of fall and winter sports, Southeastern had the second-best spring score with 415 points, vaulting them to sixth place. The Fire got 90 points from softball after finishing national runner-up at the World Series. Both baseball and men's tennis brought home 83 points while women's golf scored 66. Women's track & field and tennis rounded out the spring scoring with 48 and 43 points, respectively.
"The spring season was again our strongest, but we had 12 programs participate in NAIA National Championships this year," said Director of Athletics Drew Watson. "Finishing top ten in the Learfield Cup for four out of five years is quite an accomplishment, and the best is yet to come. I am so very proud of our student-athletes, coaches, and staff."
The Fire scored 241 points in the winter and 95 in the fall to finish with 751 points, trailing Cumberlands (KY), Indiana Wesleyan, Keiser, Marian, and Lindsey Wilson.
Southeastern was one of three Sun Conference institutions to finish in the top ten, with aforementioned Keiser coming in at #3 and SCAD at #10..Overall, the Sun led all conferences, placing four in the top 25. as St. Thomas came in at #20.
"There is no doubt the Learfield Cup is as much a measure of institutional support for athletics as it is about being competitive in the arena of competition," said Watson. "I am thankful to Dr. Ingle, Dr. Steiner, and Southeastern's administration for their unwavering support of our student-athletes and staff."
The Learfield Cup is presented by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) and measures the overall success of programs on an annual basis. Overall, 13 sports are counted in the final NAIA standings, four of which must be men's basketball, men's soccer, women's basketball and women's volleyball. The next highest (9 max.) sports scored for each institution, regardless of gender, are used in the standings.
For a complete listing of the final Learfield Cup standings, click
here.
