Stanford wraps up 25th Directors’ Cup, plus Capital One Cup for men, women

Athletic Recruits
1

https://www.sfgate.com/collegesports/article/Stanford-wraps-up-25th-straight-Directors-Cup-13034695.php

What do you call a sports dynasty that has lasted almost a quarter century?

Stanford.

The school has locked up the Learfield Directors’ Cup for the 24th straight year, as well as the men’s and women’s divisions of the Capital One Cup.

2

As impressive as that is I would place UF as the only other program I would put above Stanford especially in the big name sports of football, basketball and baseball.

https://www.bestcollegereviews.org/features/most-successful-college-athletics-programs/

I believe they finished #3 overall this year in the Director’s Cup as well.

3

A school that sponsors many more sports than most of its big time big time Division 1 competitors?

4

I call it a business.

5

Well, when you have the best weather, best location and the best education, what do you expect? :-B

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It is easy to win the cup when you offer 16 men’s sports and 20 women’s sports and most power 5 schools offer only 50% - 60% of that. You get a lot of “free points” in sports like water polo, squash, sailing, synchro swimming, fencing, beach volleyball, etc. when there are very few other programs.

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^^^It’s a big part of why I said UF was more impressive. They field 21 to Stanford’s 36 and have National Championships in football, basketball and baseball and still finished 3rd in the Director’s Cup.

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What are free points?

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By free points I meant in a sport like water polo, where I believe there are less than 20 teams on the men’s side, it is not difficult for a large, well funded school like Stanford to finish in the top 8, thereby gaining 46+ points in the cup standings while a school like Florida gets 0 points. Multiply this by the number of “small sports” Stanford participate in that most schools do not (beach volleyball, lacrosse, fencing,etc.) and it is easy to see how they can win each year when they have so many more opportunities to score points than most other schools.

The fact that the PAC10 had 3 teams in the top 4 is not surprising given the fact that all 3 schools scored points in small sports such as water polo and beach volleyball that are very geographically limiting.