For the second year in a row, Penn State earned first place in a Division I all-sports competition for the fall season.

The University finished first for the fall portion of the Sears Directors' Cup collegiate all-sports championship. The award is presented by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics and USA Today and sponsored by Sears, Roebuck & Co. The winner is determined by a system in which points are awarded based on each school's final ranking in 22 varsity sports.

Other Big Ten schools finishing behind the Lions were Wisconsin (4th), Ohio State (12th) and Michigan (13th). Stanford came in second.

Associate Athletic Director Ellen Perry said the award was testimony to the good performance of University student-athletes and coaches. This is the second year of the competition and the second time Penn State has captured the cup for the fall season.

The University was pushed to the top behind its football team, which finished second in both major polls, and its women's volleyball squad, which placed third in the NCAA championships., said L. Budd Thalman, associate athletic director of communications.

After winning the fall portion of the competition last year, the University fell to second place in the Cup standings after the winter season competition, eventually finishing fifth overall.

Penn State earned points for seven fall sports -- with six programs finishing in the top 10 -- to become the only school to have more than four fall sports finish in the top 10.

Both Penn State's field hockey and men's soccer teams advanced to the second round of their respective NCAA championships, and the men's and women's cross country teams placed eighth and ninth, respectively, at the NCAA championship meet.

With winter sports such as men's and women's basketball off to a good start, as well as the high expectations for men's and women's gymnastics and swimming teams, a high ranking may be possible for the winter, Thalman said.

Note:

-- Other finishers: Colorado (3), Arizona (5), North Carolina (6), Notre Dame (7), UCLA (8), James Madison (9), Southern Cal (10), Nebraska (11), Duke (14), Virginia (15), Alabama (16), Florida (17), N.C. State (18), Georgetown (19), Boston (20), Boston College (21), BYU (22), Washington (23), Dartmouth (24) and Appalachian State (25).