Good morning, Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) sports fans!!
Many of you might not have heard of the Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup. It is an award that honors institutions maintaining broad-based athletics programs success in many sports (including male and female sports). The Directors’ Cup, founded by the National Association of College Directors of Athletics and USA Today, began in 1993-1994 for NCAA Division I athletics. In 1995-96, it was expanded to include Division II, III and the NAIA. Each institution is awarded points in a pre-determined number of sports for men and women. The overall champion is the institution that records the highest number of points in their division’s Directors’ Cup standings. For NCAA Division I, there are 20 sports included (ten men’s and ten women’s).
The ACC leads all conferences with four institutions in the top 10 — North Carolina (2nd), Notre Dame (8th), Florida State (9th) and Virginia (10th). The ACC also has pretty good representation in the top 40 with Duke coming in at #18 (and the Blue Devils will rise after lacrosse season is over), Louisville at #19, North Carolina State at #23, Virginia Tech at #29 (if Virginia Tech can finish in the top 30, that would one of the best finishes ever for the Hokies – who don’t have many Olympic sports), and Syracuse coming in at #37 (will will rise after the lacrosse season – darn good for a new member of the conference).
The next Division I winter standings will be released Thursday, April 16.
While it doesn’t appear that any ACC team will catch Stanford, the ACC has done very well – and member institutions should be proud of the conference’s performance in the Cup.
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