What is the Directors Cup and why is it important to Stanford Athletics?
The Director’s Cup is an award given annually by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics. It is meant to honor the best overall athletic program. It is sponsored jointly by Sears and the USA Today. Only two schools, North Carolina, in the award’s first year, and Stanford, in each of the following four years, have ever won the Directors’ Cup. NACDA, gives athletic programs points for their finish in the tournaments of mens and women’s sports to determine who wins the award. Because Division IA has no football tournament, NACDA awards points based on the CNN/USA Today Poll. The number of point given depends both on a team’s finish and the number of teams playing a particular sport. So, a team is rewarded more for doing well in a sport for which many universities field teams than for doing excelling in an obscure sport.
