ORLANDO, Fla. – The Missouri State University Athletics Communications Office was honored last week here at the 2019 College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Workshop, capturing five awards for Excellence in Publications and Digital Design, all of which garnered best in the nation awards.
 
MSU's five publications from CoSIDA are the third-most earned among Division I schools. West Virginia took home 19 awards, while Oklahoma finished second with 11 awards. Missouri State matched Kansas State and Oral Roberts for third place with five awards apiece, while Notre Dame's four national awards came in sixth.
 
Missouri State earned a best in the nation award for its 2019 Softball Media Guide, marking the third straight year that publication has topped all Division I publications in that sport. The softball guide also earned national best cover award honors for the second straight year.

Missouri State's men's basketball game day program was also judged best in the nation for the first time, edging out West Virginia for that top honor. The men's basketball program, which also received a best cover award, has placed second in the national juding previously in 2012, 2016 and 2018.

Missouri State's other publication honors went to its 2018 Football Media Guide, which was judged as the best cover among FCS schools for the second year in a row. The football guide was judged as best in the nation media guide a year ago as well.  

The Missouri State Athletics Communications staff, which was named Missouri Valley Conference SID staff of the year for 2017-18, is comprised of Director Rick Kindhart, Assistant Directors Ben Adamson and Eric Doennig, and graduate assistants Emily McMillan, Morganne Lander and Tim McCall. Staff interns Ivy Reynolds and Emilee Jones also contributed to this year's award-winning publications efforts.

Update: On July 9, Missouri State was also recognized by the Missouri Valley Conference with the league award for Best Game Notes and Best Media Guides for 2018-19.