Notre Dame: Irish Currently 8th in Director’s Cup Standings
Some of you may not be aware of or know what the NACDA Director’s Cup is. If it wasn’t for what I do, I would have no idea either. But since Notre Dame tends to fare well, I figured a brief education on the award is due. But the system has some flaws, so don’t put too much stock into it. If you want to read more about it, you can go their website here.
The Director’s Cup is given to the school achieving the highest score for an academic year in sports. While it feels like Notre Dame should be near the top with the solid performances by the Men’s Lacrosse team as well as both basketball programs, that’s not necessarily the case. This is where it gets a bit more complex.
First, you’re limited to scoring in 10 sports combined. This isn’t unfair, as larger schools with more to offer would simply dominate the standings each year. It’s still dominated essentially by power conferences, but it allows for some variances at least. But where you’re going to make the most ground up is actually winning the championship in your sport. While the Irish have been very competitive, finishing second in women’s basketball, and losing in the national semi-final in men’s lacrosse doesn’t bank near as many points.
To give you an idea, Notre Dame currently sits in eighth, while Denver (men’s lacrosse champ) is 29th. How many other sports does Denver come to mind as a “powerhouse”? Not many, but that title was worth 100 points in the scoring system.
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And then you also have cases where programs are at different schools, but only a few really excel. Think Connecticut women’s basketball, or Stanford women’s water polo. Hockey is another that might fall into this one. But this where the limit of ten SHOULD offset it, but it doesn’t always.
In the end, the Director’s Cup is more for the sake of the schools governing bodies and maybe a little bit of bragging rights amongst fans, but mostly the schools. But if you didn’t know, now it’s something you can check on throughout the year to see how the Irish are faring against the rest of the nation.