Cardinal Rule

The 2009 Directors’ Cup Final Standings were released a little over a week ago, allowing athletic departments across the country to either brag or cringe about their most recent ranking. First awarded in 1994 (UNC won the inaugural), Stanford has since won the DC for 15 straight years. Anyone who follows college sports will instantly realize just how absurd that streak is; to maintain that consistent manner of athletic excellency across an entire program for one year is tough enough in the current college sports environment – nevermind 15 years. Simply remarkable. Add to it the fact that Stanford’s football team has been a Pac-10 bottom dweller since the reemergence of USC and that their men’s basketball team has made the Final Four only once during that time span (1998), and it becomes even more impressive. Not only did the Cardinal win again this year, it finished 271 points ahead of the second place finisher, UNC. To fully put that in perspective, UNC only finished 275 points ahead of #16 UCLA. That, my friends, is a true college style beat down.

Virginia has copied Stanford’s balanced AD model and this year tied the best finish in school history, eighth. Despite posting losing records in the two “revenue sports” – football and men’s basketball – 20 of UVa’s 25 teams advanced to the post-season. It might not be the best strategy to secure money from boosters but there is no denying the improvements and progress the athletic department as a whole has made since Craig Littlepage took over in 2001.

2008-09 Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup
Final Point Standings

 1. Stanford               1455.00
 2. North Carolina         1184.25
 3. Florida                1172.75
 4. Southern California    1137.75
 5. Michigan               1131.80
 6. Texas                  1105.50
 7. California             1072.00
 8. Virginia               1059.00
 9. LSU                    1029.00
10. Ohio State             1015.80
11. Washington             1010.25
12. Arizona State          1001.75
13. Texas A&M               976.00
14. Minnesota               975.75
15. Florida State           945.00
16. UCLA                    909.25
17. Duke                    891.80
18. Georgia                 866.50
19. Penn State              813.10
20. Illinois                808.75
21. Notre Dame              775.13
22. Oregon                  757.25
23. Tennessee               746.25
24. Arizona                 738.50
25. Arkansas                730.00
26. Auburn                  720.00
27. Michigan State          708.05
28. Maryland                668.80
29. Oklahoma                656.50
30. Alabama                 650.60

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