8:23 a.m., Jan. 18, 2008--The University of Delaware football team has been named the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) team of the year, that following an earlier award of the Lambert Cup. Both awards honor the top team in the East in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision.

The Fightin' Blue Hens posted an 11-4 record this past season for Head Coach K.C. Keeler and advanced to the national title game. Delaware will receive both the ECAC and Lambert awards on Feb. 19 at the annual Eastern College Football Awards Banquet presented by FieldTurf Tarkett, an event that will be held in the Pegasus Restaurant at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, N.J.

In addition to Delaware, the University of West Virginia earned the team of the year award for the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, West Chester (Pa.) University for NCAA Division II winner and Wesley College in Dover, Del., for NCAA Division III.

Delaware has won the ECAC team of the year award, which began in 1974, for the 11th time in school history. The Blue Hens previously won the award in 1974, 1976, 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1992, 1995, 2000, and 2003.

Established in 1938, the ECAC is the nation's largest athletic conference and only multi-divisional conference, with 322 member institutions and more than 122,000 student-athletes ranging across 16 states from Maine to North Carolina and westerly to Illinois.

For more information on UD athletics, see [www.udel.edu/sportsinfo].