The Pac-12 and the Director's Cup
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PrintThe past few days have seen some caterwauling grumbling in various circles about Stanford's death grip on the Director's Cup and NCAA championships, especially in the Pac-12. Some fans have claimed that Stanford has an unfair advantage because of money and donors to facilities to the sheer size of the athletic department (34 sports compared to less than 20 at some schools). One of the most compelling arguments, and easiest to disprove, is the argument that NACDA's scoring system for the Director's Cup is flawed.
To prove that, yes, Stanford just is better than everyone else, at least in the conference, I decided to do sport-by-sport comparisons with the 12 schools using only the sports in which that school fields a team. Only have 18 sports that are NCAA-regulated and awarded points by the Director's Cup? That's ok, we'll just compare those 18 sports only between the two schools and see how Stanford would have fared then. By having so many teams, Stanford is able to show some comparison. About the only sport that Stanford does not have that other schools in the Pac-12 do have that are run by the NCAA is skiing (new schools, that gives you a significant point advantage).
So without further ado, let's take a look at the comparison results that helped Stanford net its 17th-straight Director's Cup. Note that for the purposes of this comparison, the 10-sport rule (where only 10 sports for each gender are given points) was disregarded.
STANFORD Stanford fields the following NCAA teams (points from Director's Cup in parentheses):
Men -- Baseball (64), Basketball (0), Cross Country (80), Fencing (60), Football (80), Golf (40.5), Gymnastics (100), Soccer (0), Swimming & Diving (85), Tennis (73), Track & Field (69.75/73.5), Volleyball (0), Water Polo (0), Wrestling (66)
Women -- Basketball (83), Cross Country (51), Field Hockey (25), Golf (51), Gymnastics (46.5), Lacrosse (25), Rowing (90), Soccer (90), Softball (64), Swimming & Diving (80), Tennis (90), Track & Field (59.25/69.75), Volleyball (73), Water Polo (100)
Stanford total: 1789.25
ARIZONA Arizona fields the following NCAA teams:
Men -- Baseball (50), Basketball (73), Cross Country (0), Football (25), Golf (45), Swimming & Diving (80), Tennis (0), Track & Field (62.25/72)
Women -- Basketball (0), Cross Country (57), Golf (60), Gymnastics (46.5), Soccer (0), Softball (64), Swimming & Diving (75), Tennis (25), Track & Field (71.25/75), Volleyball (25)
Stanford total: 1323.25
Arizona total: 909
ARIZONA STATEASU fields the following NCAA teams:
Men -- Baseball (64), Basketball (0), Cross Country (0), Football (0), Golf (56), Swimming & Diving (53), Track & Field (0/46), Wrestling (73.5)
Women -- Basketball (25), Cross Country (0), Golf (57), Gymnastics (0), Soccer (25), Softball (100), Swimming & Diving (56), Tennis (50), Track & Field (32/55), Volleyball (0), Water Polo (0)
Stanford total: 1416.25
ASU total: 717.5
CALCalifornia fields the following NCAA teams:
Men -- Baseball (78), Basketball (0), Cross Country (12), Football (0), Golf (54.5), Gymnastics (80), Soccer (73), Swimming & Diving (100), Tennis (64), Track & Field (26.5/46), Water Polo (70)
Women -- Basketball (0), Crew (85), Cross Country (0), Field Hockey (0), Golf (64.5), Gymnastics (0), Lacrosse (0), Soccer (25), Softball (78), Swimming & Diving (100), Tennis (64), Track & Field (14/5), Volleyball(90), Water Polo (90)
Stanford total: 1663.25
Cal total: 1219.5
COLORADOColorado fields the following NCAA teams:
Men -- Basketball (0), Cross Country (45), Football (0), Golf (0), Skiing (100), Track & Field (0/6)
Women -- Basketball (0), Cross Country (72), Golf (22), Soccer (0), Tennis (0), Track & Field (14/56.5), Volleyball (0)
Stanford total: 910.75
Colorado total: 315.50
OREGONOregon fields the following NCAA teams:
Men -- Baseball (0), Basketball (0), Cross Country (54), Football (85), Golf (15), Tennis (0), Track & Field (45/90)
Women -- Basketball (0), Cross Country (72), Golf (49), Lacrosse (0), Soccer (0), Softball (64), Tennis (0), Track & Field (100/66.75), Volleyball (0)
Stanford total: 1136.75
Oregon total: 640.75
OREGON STATEOSU fields the following NCAA teams:
Men --Baseball (64), Basketball (0), Football (0), Golf (34.5), Soccer (0), Wrestling (53)
Women -- Basketball (0), Cross Country (0), Golf (0), Gymnastics (70.5), Rowing (0), Soccer (50), Softball (0), Swimming & Diving (0), Track & Field (0), Volleyball (0)
Stanford total: 1008
OSU total: 272
UCLAUCLA fields the following NCAA teams:
Men -- Baseball (50), Basketball (50), Cross Country (0), Football (0), Golf (72.75), Soccer (73), Tennis (64), Track & Field (0/37), Volleyball (0), Water Polo (0)
Women -- Basketball (50), Cross Country (0), Golf (100), Gymnastics (90), Rowing (0), Soccer (64), Softball (50), Swimming & Diving (54), Tennis (83), Track & Field (21.5/38.5), Volleyball (50), Water Polo (72.5)
Stanford total: 1428.25
UCLA total: 1070.25
USCUSC fields the following NCAA teams:
Men -- Baseball (0), Basketball (5), Football (0), Golf (63.75), Swimming & Diving (72), Tennis (100), Track & Field (21.5/62.25), Volleyball (25), Water Polo (100)
Women -- Basketball (0), Cross Country (0), Golf (74.25), Lacrosse (0), Rowing (70), Soccer (50), Swimming & Diving (85), Tennis (50), Track & Field (0/73.5), Volleyball (83), Water Polo (55)
Stanford total: 1347.25
USC total: 990.25
UTAHUtah fields the following NCAA teams:
Men -- Baseball (0), Basketball (0), Football (51), Golf (0), Skiing (90), Swimming & Diving (0), Tennis (0)
Women -- Basketball (25), Cross Country (0), Gymnastics (75), Soccer (0), Softball (0), Swimming & Diving (0), Tennis (25), Track & Field (0/0), Volleyball (0)
Stanford total: 1049
Utah total: 266
WASHINGTONWashington fields the following NCAA teams:
Men -- Baseball (0), Basketball (50), Cross Country (0), Football (45), Golf (40.5), Soccer (0), Tennis (50), Track & Field (55.5/52)
Women -- Basketball (0), Crew (49), Cross Country (42), Golf (58.5), Gymnastics (59.3), Soccer (73), Softball (64), Tennis (50), Track & Field (0/17.5), Volleyball (73)
Stanford total: 1248.25
Washington total: 779.3
WASHINGTON STATEWSU fields the following NCAA teams:
Men -- Baseball (0), Basketball (0), Cross Country (0), Football (0), Golf (0), Track & Field (14/46)
Women -- Basketball (0), Crew (26), Cross Country (0), Golf (0), Soccer (0), Swimming & Diving (0), Tennis (0), Track & Field (0/32.5), Volleyball (0)
Stanford total: 1144.75
WSU total: 118.50
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A few notes:
- Wazzu, wow. The point differential in sports that the Cougars play between them and Stanford was a whopping +1026.25.
- It's interesting to note that Colorado did better than three other Pac-12 schools despite having the least number of funded programs.
- That said, CU's skiing title saved them, as without it, it is the 11th best department in the conference (tenth if you take away Utah's 90 points for its runner-up finish in skiing).
- Basketball's scoring was peculiar. You only scored points if you went to the NCAA tournament. This meant that teams that were arguably better than some of the at-large (and automatic qualifiers) teams in the tournament, such as Colorado, were denied points while some teams, such as USC, were awarded points despite losing in the first round.
- Stanford's women's teams just blew away the rest of the conference. All 15 teams scored at least 25 points. No other school had that kind of success, either for the women or the men.
- In a direct comparison between common sports for women, Stanford's women's teams scored more points than ASU, Colorado, UO, OSU, Utah, and Washington State did for their schools' combined men's and women's scores.
- USC's fall in men's volleyball really hurt their standings. All season long, the Trojans were the top-rated team in the country. After being upset in the MPSF championship game, they were again upset against by UCSB in the NCAA tournament. If they had won the championship, it would have bumped the Trojans 4 spots, ahead of UCLA to tenth place overall.
- UCLA was the only school other than Stanford penalized by the 10-sport rule. Since the Bruins had 11 women's teams scoring points, they dropped their lowest fall women's score, 50 points from the volleyball team.
- Despite falling behind Cal and UCLA in the overall standings, USC had the smallest point differential with Stanford. It was one point better than UCLA at +357. Cal was +443.75.
- Someone over at AtQ asked if UO had won the BCS title and both basketball titles if they would be able to overtake Stanford. In the overall standings, definitely not (the net gain in points would only be 215 points for the Ducks). In terms of comparing the sports common to both schools, it would reduce the point differential with Stanford from +496 to +281, good enough for second place in the Pac-12 in terms of differentials.
- In the end, Stanford having 30 sports available to pull points from didn't matter, at least to Pac-12 teams. While some sports at Stanford did worse than their counterparts at other schools, other sports made up the difference and then-some for Stanford when comparing the common sports between Stanford and a conference mate.
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I find this pissing contest between you and Ucla (who have a front page story right now in which they onanistically review their “first to 100” status) to be kind of amusing.
The fact that you feel compelled to justify the Director’s Cup results just gives legitimacy to those who gripe about it. Your entire article could have been replaced with a simple (on many levels) sentence:
“Don’t hate the player, hate the game.”
Ucla’s psychosis, however, seems to run deeper.
"Thanks. Go Bears!" - Ernest Owusu: the next great Cal DE
by SoCal Oski on Jul 7, 2025 7:37 AM PDT reply actions
Bruins fans
UCLA fans, or more appropriately the ones at BN, are one losing season in every sport away from claiming that the sky is falling, Dan Guerrero is a failure, the Morgan Center is inept, and that there’s too much bureaucracy involved that is preventing UCLA from succeeding further. They’re already concerned that Stanford may overtake them in overall championships in the article I linked to, especially since Stanford cut into their lead by ONE championship this past academic year.
We just shrug our shoulders and move on when we lose.
by RedOscar on Jul 7, 2025 9:03 AM PDT up reply actions
The cup appears legitimate to me.
It looks like a nice measure of ranking the most complete well rounded program. Furd has excelled at this. They may be pricks reveling in their glory, but they deserve it.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes that St Larry soon would be there. -Maji Man
by daedalus17 on Jul 8, 2025 9:57 AM PDT up reply actions
Some fans have claimed that Stanford has an unfair advantage because of money and donors to facilities
To be fair, your analysis wouldn’t necessarily disprove this argument - even if you compare only sports that both schools have, more money and better facilities would still be a potential advantage for rivals to gripe about.
Personally, I try to view it less as a ‘gripe’ and more as a statement of fact. Stanford wants to be the best overall athletic department in the nation, they have the resources to do so, and they don’t hesitate to allocate those resources intelligently to achieve that goal.
Also, I wish Cal could get their cross country/outdoor track/indoor track competing on an elite level. If we could do that we’d be thisclose to actually challenging Stanford.
The #1 greatest threat to America: BEARS
by norcalnick on Jul 7, 2025 9:18 PM PDT reply actions
I admit that I am not intimately familiar with the details of the Director’s Cup scoring system, but it seems like the exclusion of two of Cal’s most outstanding programs from the Director’s Cup also gives Stanford an advantage: Rugby (26 Cal national championships in the last 31 years) and Men’s Crew (16 Cal national championships).
Official Acceptor of TwistNHook's Unconditional Surrender Person of CGB and Queen of Spite Recs
by CalBear81 on Jul 8, 2025 4:53 PM PDT up reply actions
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