Directors' Cup Projection

Submitted by WolverineBlue on

Sorry this isn't better news, but maybe it will serve us to temper any unrealistic expectations and just enjoy the conclusion of what has been a highly successful season for many of Michigan's athletic teams.

When the updated NACDA Directors' Cup standings are released this coming Thursday, they will show that Stanford has shot past Michigan into first place with a comfortable lead of over 200 points. Furthermore, Florida, UCLA, North Carolina, and Notre Dame will have closed considerable ground and will be sitting within 50 points of Michigan. Where is this all likely to end up? Well, with most spring NCAA tournament action already underway, we can project with reasonable accuracy what the approximate final standings might look like.

If you account for ongoing qualification / elimination status in all sports and project final results based on current seeding or ranking, the final standings project to this:

1    Stanford    1346.75
2    Florida        1205.5
3    UCLA        1190
4    Michigan    1098.25
5    North Carolina    1090.33
6    Notre Dame    1031

This will change somewhat, of course, but most of those points are already pretty well locked in. The prospects for a top 3 Michigan finish are remote, but we can certainly root for the Wolverines to hold off the likes of North Carolina and Notre Dame and claim a very respectable fourth place. More importantly, if the softball team can knock off Oklahoma on Thursday and go on to surprise everyone with Michigan's third national championship of the year, that would make for a fantastic capper on a memorable year for Michigan sports.

julesh

May 27th, 2013 at 2:10 PM ^

A softball championship will also shoot Michigan into second place in the women's Capital One Cup. On the men's side, Michigan is still tied with Indiana for first.

Well...Well...Well

May 27th, 2013 at 2:11 PM ^

Whatever the final outcome, this has been a great year by all of our teams, hopefully the trend continues and all teams keep improving , especially baseball and WBB who have shown tremendous growth these past few years.

mGrowOld

May 27th, 2013 at 3:43 PM ^

What does the rest of B1G look like in the rankings?  Seeing as it appears that warm weather schools equals springtime sports dominance (Notre Dame notwithstanding) I shudder to think how Minnesota fares in this competition.

Raoul

May 27th, 2013 at 4:05 PM ^

I haven't done an exhaustive, chart-filled examination of this, but the Big Ten overall was doing quite well at the time of the last official update of the standings in late April. There were eight Big Ten teams in the top 25, including Minnesota at #7. The lowest-ranking was Northwestern at #55.

The Pac-12 had 5 schools in the top 25, the SEC had 4, and both the ACC and Big 12 had just 3.

The lowest-ranking schools per conference were:

  • Big 12: TCU, #78
  • SEC: Miss. St., #81
  • ACC: Ga. Tech, #121
  • Pac-12: Wash. St., #213

WolverineBlue

May 27th, 2013 at 4:09 PM ^

Penn State actually had a pretty good year and should finish about 7th with roughly 984 points. Minnesota, Ohio State, Indiana, and even Michigan State are in line for top 25 finishes. For OSU, this year will be a big dropoff from last year's 4th place finish. Southern and far west schools without doubt outscore Big Ten schools by a wide margin in spring sports.

TruBluMich

May 27th, 2013 at 8:06 PM ^

Im not sure how these work.  Would love to see what the standings would be if the Hockey team and Football team had been closer to historical averages.  Which I would guess would be around top 10?  If someone could calculate that I would really appreciate it.

WolverineBlue

May 27th, 2013 at 11:47 PM ^

The last minute loss in the bowl game cost about 30-50 points. The hockey team not making the NCAA tourney cost 25-100 points, depending on how far they would have gotten. So, not enough difference to claim the top spot. Improvements in golf, track and field, and lacrosse (men's and women's versions of each) would probably be the best opportunity to gain some points in future years. With new facilities on the way, perhaps that will happen.