Halfway through the 2008-09 athletic year, here are the latest Director's Cup rankings, with the 12 athletic departments of the SEC highlighted:

Rank/Institution/Total Points
1 Stanford 686.75
2 Minnesota 542.75
3 Penn State 536.00
4 North Carolina 496.25
5 Oregon 491.25
6 Florida 490.75
7 Texas 440.50
8 California 437.50
9 Michigan 419.00
10 Wisconsin 411.50
11 Washington 396.50
12 Notre Dame 392.63
13 Southern California 392.00
14 Florida State 385.50
15 Virginia 373.00
16 Maryland 364.00
17 Illinois 354.50
18 Nebraska 350.50
19 Duke (N.C.) 344.00
20 Ohio State 340.00
21 Wake Forest 317.50
22 Texas A&M 316.50
23 Michigan State 314.00
24 Iowa 309.50
25 Louisiana State U. 307.00
26 West Virginia 302.00
27 Missouri 292.00
28 Princeton (N.J.) 282.00
29 Brigham Young (Utah) 281.50
30 UCLA 278.00
31 Indiana 267.75
32 Texas Tech 264.75
33 Auburn 261.00
34 Arizona State 250.00
35 Tennessee 249.00
36 Virginia Tech 248.00
37 Kentucky 244.00
38 Arkansas 234.00
39 Oklahoma State 230.50
40 Boise State 229.00
41 Utah 228.00
42 Arizona 225.00
43 Colorado 219.00
44 Northwestern 215.00
45 Boston College 212.00
46 Harvard 209.00
47 Georgia 201.50
48 Northern Iowa 199.00
49 Iowa State 198.00
50 Texas Christian U. 195.00
51 Connecticut 194.00
52 Alabama 190.50
53 Miami (Fla.) 190.25
54 Villanova (Pa.) 186.50
55 New Mexico 180.00
56 Purdue 178.63
57 Louisville 177.00
58 Oklahoma 175.00
59 Hawaii 172.50
60 James Madison (Va.) 172.00
61 Rice (Tex.) 170.50
62 Kansas 168.00
63 Clemson 165.50
64 Cornell (N.Y.) 164.50
65 South Carolina 164.25
66 Georgetown 158.63
67 Dartmouth (N.H.) 158.00
67 Providence 158.00
69 North Carolina State 157.00
70 Tulsa 156.63
71 St. Johns (N.Y.) 155.00
72 Navy 153.50
73 Denver 150.00
74 New Hampshire 148.00
75 Portland 142.00
75 William and Mary (Va.) 142.00
77 Nevada-Reno 141.00
78 Oregon State 138.50
79 Rutgers (N.J.) 134.50
80 California Poly San Louis Obispo133.50
81 Baylor (Tex.) 130.50
82 Northern Arizona 125.00
83 Pennsylvania 123.00
84 Yale 122.00
85 South Florida 118.00
86 Army 113.00
87 UC Santa Barbara 111.00
88 Cincinnati 107.00
89 Akron 106.50
90 Houston 102.00
91 Syracuse 101.00
92 Boston University 100.00
92 Richmond (Va.) 100.00
92 St. Louis 100.00
95 Long Beach State 99.50
96 Colorado State 95.00
97 American 94.50
98 Memphis (Tenn.) 94.00
99 Middle Tennessee State 92.50
100 Iona (N.Y.) 90.00
100 Montana 90.00
102 Southern Methodist (Tex.) 89.00
102 Western Michigan 89.00
104 Central Florida 86.50
104 Mississippi 86.50
104 Wichita State (Kans.) 86.50
107 Central Michigan 85.75
108 George Mason (Va.) 85.50
109 Columbia/Barnard (N.Y.) 85.00
109 Jacksonville State (Ala.) 85.00
111 Liberty (Va.) 84.00
112 Air Force 83.00
113 Kansas State 82.00
113 Kent State 82.00
115 North Carolina Greensboro 79.00
116 San Diego 75.00
116 Vermont 75.00
118 Albany 74.50
119 Creighton (Nebr.) 73.00
120 Fresno State 71.00
121 Northeastern (Mass.) 69.00
122 UC Davis 68.00
123 Western Kentucky 67.50
124 Appalachian State 65.00
125 Illinois Chicago 64.00
125 UC Irvine 64.00
127 Georgia Tech 62.63
128 Jacksonville 62.00
129 Pittsburgh 61.00
130 Wyoming 60.50
131 Weber State (Utah) 60.00
132 Southern Illinois 57.00
133 Fairleigh Dickinson (N.J.) 55.00
133 South Dakota State 55.00
135 Old Dominion (Va.) 53.50
136 Temple (Penn.) 51.00
137 Buffalo 50.50
138 Alabama Birmingham 50.00
138 Belmont (Tenn.) 50.00
138 Colgate (N.Y.) 50.00
138 Dayton 50.00
138 Fairfield (Conn.) 50.00
138 Hampton (Va.) 50.00
138 Indiana State 50.00
138 Loyola College (Md.) 50.00
138 Massachusetts 50.00
138 New Mexico State 50.00
138 North Carolina Charlotte 50.00
138 San Francisco 50.00
138 Santa Clara (Calif.) 50.00
138 Texas State San Marcos 50.00
138 Tulane 50.00
138 Wisconsin-Milwaukee 50.00
154 Bethune-Cookman (Fla.) 49.50
155 Drexel (Pa.) 48.00
156 Loyola Marymount (Calif.) 47.50
157 Hofstra (N.Y.) 47.00
158 Lehigh (Pa.) 46.00
159 Vanderbilt 45.00
159 Florida Atlantic 45.00
159 Louisiana Tech 45.00
159 Southern Mississippi 45.00
225 Mississippi State 0.00

Is that list just men's sports? Or is it men's and women's combined?

It's a pretty meaningless award, Stanford has won it 14 years in a row. And I don't think they've ever won a championship during that time that anybody cared about. Most SEC schools don't offer many of the sports that the NCAA awards "points" for. These include: Bowling, Fencing, Field Hockey, Men's gymnastics, Ice hockey, Indoor track and field, Lacrosse, Rifle, Rowing, Skiing, men's soccer, men's volleyball, and men's and women's water polo.

That's nearly as many sports as most SEC schools have in total, so its easy to see why schools like Stanford where they delight in pretentious and gay sports do so well.

It's all sports, men's and women's. It's called the Director's Cup for athletic directors. As D3 pointed out, it can be somewhat unfair, in that the entire athletic departments are ranked; so the schools with more sports (like Stanford) can remain at the top most of the time. Most SEC schools only have 18 sports or so. However, since all D1 schools don't offer all the same sports, it's difficult to count just certain sports. For instance, what makes men's gymnastics any less valid as women's gymnastics? Both genders compete in the Olympics; so, if they did away with men's, they might as well get rid of women's, too. And that would definitely hurt SEC schools' numbers. Recently, the standard has changed to only include the Top 20 sports, the Top 10 men's and the Top 10 women's. So, the fact that Stanford fields 31 varsity teams will be irrelevant... only the Top 10 men's and women's sports will be included.

Also, if it's a ranking of the school's athletic department, the size of the department and the number of sports offered should be considered, imo. Either way, there are no points awarded for simply having lots of sports... the schools actually have to succeed, be ranked, etc. at the end of their season to get any points.

But, just as an example, Stanford has 31 varsity programs in its athletic department, and has finished #1 the last 14 years in a row. However, UF has never finished outside of the Top 10, even though we only field 20 varsity teams (it'll be 21 when lacrosse starts next year)... even when we were at a disadvantage with fewer teams in the athletic department than schools like Stanford and UCLA.

You can check out the site here, and read about the scoring structure, scheduled ranking updates, and included sports: http://www.nacda.com/directorscup/na...t-scoring.html

The April 9th Update in the rankings has the SEC schools in the following order:

National Rank/School/Points
4. Florida 615.75
20. Louisiana State U. 453.00
23. Auburn 411.00
28. Tennessee 369.50
41. Kentucky 301.00
43. Georgia 294.00
49. Alabama 243.00
51. Arkansas 234.00
59. South Carolina 208.75
102. Vanderbilt 109.00
122. Mississippi 86.50
131. Mississippi State 75.00

Looks like most SEC schools had pretty significant jumps since the last ranking.

Damn. How do you get a zero MSU?

What does this award even mean?

It means, "On a level of 0-700... how gay is your institution?"

Obviously, Mississippi State is awesome along with Vanderbilt. Florida is dumb with a score somewhere in the 400's. Simple really.

We're pretty good at those non-revenue sports.

Any ranking that has minnesota 2nd is about as relevant as bama's mnc's...

They likely won't be anywhere near there when it's all said and done. What the updates do accomplish is give an ongoing idea of who might win the SEC All Sports Trophy; because it's awarded in much the same way.

2/3 of the way through the 2008-09 season, and the SEC athletic department rankings look like this after the April 23rd update:

Rk./School/Points
6. Florida 695.75
12. Louisiana State U. 526.50
23. Auburn 463.50
31. Georgia 394.00
37. Tennessee 369.50
40. Kentucky 339.80
41. Alabama 333.00
44. Arkansas 309.00
62. South Carolina 208.75
85. Vanderbilt 149.00
129. Mississippi 86.50
135. Mississippi State 75.00

There will be 3 more updates this year, including the final ranking.

National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics - National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics

Hogs are making a big move in the late sports, could finish as high as 4th among SEC schools.

With softball and baseball, looks like UF is headed for a top 5 finish. Not too shabby.

6. Florida 836.75
15. Louisiana State 691.00
22. Georgia 610.00
23. Auburn 583.00
26. Tennessee 540.50
34. Kentucky 475.80
35. Alabama 474.00
38. Arkansas 420.50
50. South Carolina 345.75
66. Vanderbilt 241.00
69. Mississippi 233.00
149. Mississippi State 75.00