@MizzouAthletics Stands Program-Best 15th in Learfield Director's Cup Race
4/27/2017 10:15:00 AM | General
Nine Mizzou Teams Have Tallied Points In All-Sports Standings
COLUMBIA, Mo. – Fueled by Top-10 NCAA finishes by its Wrestling (fifth), Women's 's Indoor Track & Field (eighth) and Men's Swimming & Diving (ninth) teams, as well as a 13th-place NCAA finish by the Mizzou Women's Swimming & Diving team and Volleyball's Sweet 16 run, Mizzou stands a program-best 15th in the Learfield Directors' Cup standings at the conclusion of the winter sports season.
After scoring 147.50 points during the fall sports season, Mizzou tallied 386 points during the recently-completed winter sports campaign to boost its overall total to 533.50 points. It marks the sixth time since the standings were introduced in 1993-94 that Mizzou has topped the 500-point mark, but the first time it has done so before the final standings were released at the end of the academic year.
All-told, nine Mizzou teams have produced 2016-17 Directors' Cup points thus far—wrestling, women's indoor track & field, men's swimming & diving, women's swimming & diving, women's gymnastics, volleyball, women's cross country, women's basketball and women's soccer, and it ranks third among SEC institutions in the most-recent standings just behind seventh-place Kentucky and 13th-place Florida.
Mizzou currently has nine teams ranked among the nation's Top 25 in their respective sport—Wrestling (5th-place NCAA Championship), Women's Indoor Track & Field (8th-place NCAA Championships), Men's Swimming and Diving (9th-place at NCAA Championships), Women's Swimming and Diving (13th-place NCAA Championships), Women's Gymnastics (No. 15), Volleyball (No. 16), Women's Cross Country (16th-place at NCAA Championships), Women's Basketball (No. 25) and Men's Golf (No. 25). Two other Tiger teams, baseball and softball, have also been ranked among the Top 25 at some point during their respective seasons.
The Learfield Directors' Cup was developed as a joint effort between the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) and USA Today. Points are awarded based on each institution's NCAA Championship finish.
Mizzou finished 43rd in the 2015-16 Learfield Cup, scoring points in 10 of the 20 allotted sports, including seven top-25 finishes. It's average finish over the last five years has been 46th place, finishing 49th in 2011-12, 53rd in 2012-13, 46th in 2013-14 and 42nd in 2014-15 prior to last year. Mizzou's all-time best finish was a 36th-place showing in the 2008-09 competition year, and it has placed among the top 55 programs in the final standings each of the last 17 years.
Complete standings and the scoring structure can be found on NACDA's website at www.directorscup.org. In addition, please visit www.thedirectorscup.com, like them on Facebook at facebook.com/ldirectorscup or follow on Twitter @ldirectorscup.
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