January 14th, 2016 at 11:00 AM ^
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January 14th, 2016 at 11:17 AM ^
And yet there's still Purdue, Iowa, and Illinois behind both of them; Northwestern and Indiana are both behind Rutgers. Also behind Rutgers? Alabama, LSU, Georgia, and Tennessee.
Not that I'm trying to make excuses for Delany adding them, but the Director's Cup is probably not the best place to make this argument.
January 14th, 2016 at 11:52 AM ^
Is a good place to complain about Delany, Maryland, and/or Rutgers.
January 14th, 2016 at 11:53 AM ^
SEC! Not good at much else...
January 14th, 2016 at 12:32 PM ^
January 14th, 2016 at 2:52 PM ^
I can't believe I'm going to defend the SEC but here goes. Don't they have around half the number of scholarship sports available as compared to the Big 10 and other conferences? Just sayin.
January 14th, 2016 at 4:31 PM ^
Yeah, Rutgers isn't particularly good at football or basketball, but if we are making an argument about overall sport involvement they aren't worse than a half-dozen schools in this conference.
January 14th, 2016 at 11:05 AM ^
Finishing #1 in the conference is the closest we're gonna get to having a #1 finish in terms of the standings. Stanford wins it every year because they have like 37 sports.
January 14th, 2016 at 11:07 AM ^
Was just going to comment to that effect. I feel like we generally land near the top for the first half of the year, then trail off.
January 14th, 2016 at 11:55 AM ^
and most of them perform well.
January 14th, 2016 at 11:08 AM ^
It's more so because they clean up in the olympic/non-revenue sports. I believe NACDA only counts the top 10 male teams and top 10 female teams of each school.
January 14th, 2016 at 11:08 AM ^
January 14th, 2016 at 2:14 PM ^
I'd just like to point out that the last time they won a national championship in football or men's basketball, WWII was going on.
1 Final Four since then for their MBB.
I wish we could win the Director's Cup and have a fuckton of national championships in every other sport in addition to having football AND men's basketball programs with recent national success.
It does bother me that the West coast schools that have pretty awful fanbases in terms of attendance win all these championships. They don't appreciate it.
January 14th, 2016 at 11:10 AM ^
In previous years, schools like Michigan, UNC, UCLA have had leads at this point over Stanford but quickly saw Stanford run away with it. So, with them already leading, it could be an even bigger blowout for them this year....
January 14th, 2016 at 11:21 AM ^
They don't win because of the massive number of sports they offer. Even if you calculate the directors' cup standings based on only sports that Michigan offers, they run away with the title. Cherry-pick any reasonable combination of sports you want, and Stanford is the best.
They could drop half of their varsity sports today and probably still win it.
January 14th, 2016 at 11:24 AM ^
January 14th, 2016 at 11:29 AM ^
Winning championships gives them an even more massive advantage. And they do, in multiple sports, every year.
January 14th, 2016 at 11:57 AM ^
We should get rid of that so that everyone can win a Directors Cup participation trophy.
January 14th, 2016 at 11:37 AM ^
They don't count all of their sports though. Only the top ones.
January 14th, 2016 at 11:46 AM ^
January 14th, 2016 at 11:56 AM ^
Go back and figure the directors' cup standings counting points only in sports that Michigan offers. Tell me if Stanford still wins it every single season. (HINT: they do).
Now, pick 15 sports out of a hat, then calculate the directors' cup standings from the last several years based on those 15 sports only. Tell me if Stanford still wins it every single season (HINT: they almost certainly do).
It's not the number of sports. It's the number of championships, and the number of near-championships.
January 14th, 2016 at 11:58 AM ^
You seem genuinely upset that Stanford wins this thing every year and Michigan doesn't.
January 14th, 2016 at 2:08 PM ^
Not really. They created the Capital One Cup because no one really even cares about trying to WIN the Director's Cup when Stanford and their three dozen sports win it every year. Top-5 and top-10 finishes are what people are gunning for.
UCLA and Stanford have both built ridiculous numbers of national titles in sports either dominated regionally or ones with barely any teams playing them.
Water polo, men's volleyball, track, baseball, softball.
Water polo is especially ridiculous considering no team outside the state of CA has even won the 3rd place game, much less the national championship in women's water polo.
January 14th, 2016 at 2:25 PM ^
Did you feel the same way about softball before 2005?
January 14th, 2016 at 6:58 PM ^
I just said that it's a regional sport dominated by the West coast.
Which is true. Michigan, Alabama and Florida are the only teams to ever win the national title East of the Mississippi River.
Michigan is still at a massive disadvantage being in the Midwest and playing half of the regular season in places other than Ann Arbor, and they still make the World Series.
January 14th, 2016 at 1:16 PM ^
They don't have down years. The best runners, jumpers, throwers, and swimmers are always going to go there.
January 14th, 2016 at 2:03 PM ^
Dead wrong on the swimmers part. Michigan blows their swim program out of the water.
Michigan has 19 National Championships with their last coming in 2013.
Stanford only has 8, way back in 1998.
January 14th, 2016 at 2:36 PM ^
There are more sports in the water than just swimming and diving. Stanford's women also have 8 titles to M's 0. Wikipedia also has M with only 12 titles - 9 of which happend befor 1960.
You seem genuinely chapped about this. Did you play basketball in Wisconsin?
January 14th, 2016 at 7:00 PM ^
If you're going to cherry pick years, Stanford football and men's basketball have accomplished nothing nationally.
January 14th, 2016 at 8:30 PM ^
January 14th, 2016 at 11:47 AM ^
Stanford has 36 varsity sports. Ohio State also has 36. If it was only about the number of sports, you would think OSU would have finished in the top 5 more than 4 times since the Director's Cup started in 1993-94.
Penn State has 31 sports (which I think is #3, but I can't find a definitive list without going through every team's site), and yet only finished 3rd or better once.
Stanford wins because they're a great school in a great location, who also happens to win a lot in the Olympic/non-revenue sports where there isn't a professional league.
January 14th, 2016 at 11:59 AM ^
because they're pretty much good at everything
January 14th, 2016 at 3:13 PM ^
|
Stanford |
21 |
|
|
Florida |
21 |
|
|
UCLA |
19 |
|
|
UNC |
17 |
|
|
Michigan |
16 |
|
|
Texas |
15 |
|
|
USC |
12 |
|
|
Georgia |
9 |
|
|
California |
8 |
↑ |
|
OSU |
8 |
|
|
Arizona |
8 |
↓ |
|
PennState |
7 |
|
|
LSU |
6 |
|
|
Duke |
6 |
↑ |
|
ASU |
6 |
↓ |
|
Virginia |
5 |
↑ |
|
TexasA&M |
5 (3/2) |
↑ |
|
Nebraska |
5 |
↓ |
|
Notre Dame |
3 |
↑ |
|
FSU |
3 |
↑ |
|
Tennessee |
2 |
|
|
Washington |
2 |
|
|
Oklahoma |
2 |
↑ |
|
Minnesota |
1 |
|
PAC-12: 76
SEC: 40
Big 10: 32
ACC: 31
Big 12: 22
January 14th, 2016 at 11:16 AM ^
No points at all from either Men's or Women's soccer. Disgraceful. We use the max # of scholarships and pay for top coaches, right? Then what gives? Why aren't we better at soccer?
Glad to see Cross Country contributing so much, those are strong programs right now.
January 14th, 2016 at 11:33 AM ^
Why aren't we better at soccer?
Short answer: Dave Brandon.
Cant remember the specifics, but the section of JUB's book was pretty interesting regarding the coaches at UofM.
January 14th, 2016 at 11:51 AM ^
This. Brandon fired the Men's program's founder - a highly respected coach who had taken the Wolverines on deep tourney runs a few times - because of a single down year.
January 14th, 2016 at 12:42 PM ^
January 14th, 2016 at 1:45 PM ^
It is rather suprising since in the past 5 seasons Indiana, Notre Dame, and Akron have all won National Titles in men's soccer, so there certainly shouldn't be anything holding Michigan back.
January 14th, 2016 at 1:16 PM ^
If I recall correctly, the old coach wasnt a Dave Brandon Company Man and was shipped out for someone who is.
January 14th, 2016 at 12:08 PM ^
In all fairness women's soccer should've been in the NCAA Tournament this year based on their RPI (Long Beach State got an at-large bid, despite being one sport behind Michigan in the RPI), but they got snubbed.
And men's soccer does lose a lot of pieces on offense from last year but if Atuahene is back they should be pretty good next season.
January 14th, 2016 at 11:29 AM ^
I am sure Dave Brandon is boosting his ego and sitting in his Toys R Us office right now taking all the credit for this.
January 14th, 2016 at 11:32 AM ^
to it. I laughed when I read about him fondling himself over the Director's Cup Standings. Even an idiot like myself knows that no one can beat Stanford, so to get worked up over it is so stupid, which sums up DB well.
January 14th, 2016 at 11:37 AM ^
January 14th, 2016 at 11:42 AM ^
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January 14th, 2016 at 11:55 AM ^
... even has a right to exist athletically (let alone place third) after the institutional corruption that took place followed by their efforts to assassinate the character of a whistleblower is just another reason to hate everything about the NCAA as an institution. It's entirely a house of cards built to support the financial enrichment of the few already in power on the backs of those without meaningful alternatives.
January 14th, 2016 at 12:09 PM ^
Yep, the 2015 UNC women's soccer team should be ashamed of themselves for what those other players did a few years ago! Shut down the whole fugging school. Good call....
January 14th, 2016 at 12:03 PM ^
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January 14th, 2016 at 12:06 PM ^
C'mon soccer!