Florida Gators Men's Athletics Program Captures Inaugural Capital One Cup Trophy

MCLEAN, Va., June 30, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Capital One Financial Corporation (NYSE: COF), an official NCAA® Corporate Champion, today announced that the University of Florida men's athletics program is the winner of the inaugural Capital One Cup. The school will be formally honored along with the women's Capital One Cup winner, Stanford University, at the ESPY Awards televised by ESPN on July 13, during which the Capital One Cup trophy will be presented along with a $200,000 donation to fund student-athlete graduate-level scholarships. Launched in the fall of 2010, the Capital One Cup honors NCAA Division I athletics programs for their cumulative on-field performance across multiple men's and women's sports.

"On behalf of the university, our student athletes and our fans, we are honored to accept the inaugural Capital One Cup trophy and $200,000 scholarship," said University of Florida Athletics Director Jeremy Foley.  "Our goal is to strive for overall athletic success, and we're extremely proud of our men's program winning the Capital One Cup and our women's program placing fourth. Thank you to Capital One and its affiliated companies for their support of intercollegiate athletics."

Climbing from the sixth-place position that they held prior to the NCAA Men's College World Series, the Gators advanced all the way to the championship series at the CWS, finishing second in the USA Today/ESPN Top 25 coaches' baseball poll and securing the necessary points to claim an overall first-place finish in the men's Capital One Cup standings with a total of 93 points. Like the women's competition, the winner of the men's Capital One Cup came down to the final NCAA Division I championship of the year, the NCAA Men's College World Series, with six out of the eight qualifying teams having the chance to win the inaugural men's Capital One Cup. The University of Virginia finished second in the final men's Capital One Cup standings with 82 points, followed by Auburn and Texas A&M, who tied for third place, and Stanford University.

"On behalf of Capital One, we'd like to congratulate the University of Florida for winning the inaugural men's Capital One Cup," said Capital One Chief Marketing Officer, Bill McDonald. "It was exciting to see so many programs, including schools like Eastern Washington, stay in contention for the trophy throughout the year. The Gators' performance at the CWS and at multiple other NCAA Division I championships, including their National Championship at the indoor track and field championship, proves that every game, match and meet counts."

The Gators rounded out the spring athletics season with Top 10 finishes in outdoor track and field, tennis and baseball. Earlier in the year, Florida made strides in the winter season with Top 10 finishes in basketball, swimming and diving, and an impressive first-place finish at the indoor track and field championship.

The final stretch of the race for the Capital One Cup took place during the spring athletics season with five sports in play to determine the champion. Highlights from the Capital One Cup during the 2010 – 2011 men's athletics season include:

• Seventy-five men's programs earned points
• Florida placed in the Top 10 in six championships including basketball, swimming and diving, indoor track and field, tennis, outdoor track and field and baseball

Below are the official men's Capital One Cup final standings for the 2010 – 2011 athletics season, with only the Top 10 point earners in men's Division I athletics listed.

"All the student-athletes in the Gators' men's athletics program as well as their fans should be proud of this accomplishment," said Capital One Cup Advisory Board member and former Oklahoma State baseball player, Robin Ventura. "The Capital One Cup represents commitment, dedication and hard work at all levels of the NCAA Division I competitions. Florida proved that with those three attributes they could overcome all challenges even at the last minute and move their program from sixth place to a well-deserved first place finish. Congratulations to the Florida Gators."

The Capital One Cup men's and women's winners will be formally honored at the ESPY Awards televised by ESPN on July 13. The men's and women's final standings can be found at CapitalOneCup.com/standings as well as at Facebook.com/CapitalOneCup.

About Capital One

Capital One Financial Corporation (www.capitalone.com) is a financial holding company whose subsidiaries, which include Capital One, N.A. and Capital One Bank (USA), N.A., had $125.4 billion in deposits and $199.3 billion in total assets outstanding as of March 31, 2011. Headquartered in McLean, Virginia, Capital One offers a broad spectrum of financial products and services to consumers, small businesses and commercial clients. Capital One, N.A. has approximately 1,000 branch locations primarily in New York, New Jersey, Texas, Louisiana, Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. A Fortune 500 company, Capital One trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "COF" and is included in the S&P 100 index.

Capital One, an NCAA Corporate Champion, began its affiliation with college sports with the sponsorship of the 2001 Capital One Florida Citrus Bowl (now the Capital One Bowl) and ESPN's Capital One Bowl Week. In addition, Capital One sponsors the ABC College Football Halftime Report, Capital One All-America Mascot team, Capital One Academic All-America Program, and supports all 89 NCAA Championships including the Division I Men's and Women's Basketball Championships, and numerous other collegiate athletics programs.

NCAA and College World Series are trademarks owned or licensed by the National Collegiate Athletic Association.  All other licenses or trademarks are property of their respective holders.

Contact: Sukhi Sahni, 703-720-2390
[email protected]

SOURCE Capital One