Northwestern was 29th in the Learfield Director’s Cup Standings after the fall sports, and they’re still in 29th place half way through the spring season, thanks in large part to men’s basketball, I assume.
Mike Nolan
If my memory serves me, that’s a pretty decent move upward from our customary position in the high 30s. Our spring teams (lax, softball, golf, tennis) usually do quite well, so maybe we’ll move into the Top 25.
Interesting that Stanford was #1 for many years in a row, but they’ve been knocked out by the more traditional fb and bb powers.
I always thought Stanford ran up DIrector’s points in sports not many other teams competed in.
I know Nebraska’s AD, Trev Alberts, gets a bonus if the Huskers finish high enough, I think other schools have written in similar incentives.
Stanford is having significant financial and other issues around the way it fields so many teams. This is far from a secret
[
Stanford says it won’t cut sports after lawsuits and pressure from athletes
washingtonpost.com
](https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2021/05/18/stanford-reverses-sports-cuts-lawsuits/)
Schools can count a maximum of 19 sports in the Directors Cup standings. So, Stanford and dOSU can’t pile on the points for rifle, for example.
According to Google, both OSU and Stanford offer 36 varsity sports.
Do they get to pick which 19 sports they want to accrue points in? If so, when do they have to make that choice and how often can they change it?
Mike Nolan
Good questions, Mike. Four of the sports must be baseball, men’s basketball, women’s basketball and women’s volleyball. The next highest 15 (max.) sports scored for each institution, regardless of gender, will be used in the standings.
With the exception of FCS Football, points are only earned in NCAA championships.
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What if a school doesn’t offer one or more of those 4 sports? Wisconsin dropped baseball in 1991, for example.
If it’s one of the mandatory ones you just lose the chance to gain points. If you don’t have 19 of the ones that count you also lose out. It’s one of the reasons, along with money, that the P5 dominate
Interesting. I was wondering what would happen to Wisconsin, who closed their baseball program several years back.
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