Directors' Cup Directors' Cup 2025-2026

Directors' Cup Directors' Cup 2025-2026 - Printable Version

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RE: Directors' Cup 2025-2026 - BobK - 06-01-2026

Plus Ohio State with 36

RE: Directors' Cup 2025-2026 - jacket3ree - 06-01-2026

By number of varsity sports sponsored:*

1. Harvard 42 (21 men's, 21 women's)
2. Princeton 38 (18/20)
3. Cornell 37 (17/20)
4. Navy 36 (18/15/3)
4. Ohio State 36 (16/20)
4. Stanford 36 (16/20)
7. Yale 35 (16/18/1)
8. Boston College 31 (14/16/1)
8. Michigan 31 (14/17)
8. Penn State 31 (16/15)

Texas is 21 (9/12)
UCLA is 25 (11/14)

I don't recall a direct correlation between the number of sports sponsored and Cup standings but I understand why they tweaked the rules for those interested in a spreadsheet-based competition. (Aren't the titles enough competition in and of themselves?) Still, if only Stanford wins, no one at all will care about this, so for those interested in the Cup competition, you should probably root for Stanford to get better at the sports 'that count' then hope they change the way sports are counted. Interesting that Ohio State's finished second three times (2010/11, 2015/16, and 2016/17). And just for kicks, Stanford Football finished 2010/11 as #4 to Ohio State's #5 (both 12-1), 2015/16 as #3 (12-2) to Ohio State's #4 (12-1) and 2016/17 as #12 (10-3) to Ohio State's #6 (11-2).

So the lesson is to have Ohio State do really well in the Cup.....

*May not be exhaustive. AI sucks at this stuff. Depends how you ask. That said:

Ivy League rules prevent schools from offering athletic scholarships, so they focus on massive student body athletic participation (squash, fencing, crew, 'ivy-exclusive disciplines')

Programs like Stanford and Ohio State intentionally run broad-based athletic departments designed to feed athletes directly into the Olympic pipelines.

Service academies mandate athletic involvement (varsity, club, intramural) for the entire student body leading to heavily subsidized, robust varsity rosters.

RE: Directors' Cup 2025-2026 - Mick - 06-01-2026

(06-01-2026, 07:01 PM)jacket3ree Wrote: *May not be exhaustive. AI sucks at this stuff. Depends how you ask. That said:

Ivy League rules prevent schools from offering athletic scholarships, so they focus on massive student body athletic participation (squash, fencing, crew, 'ivy-exclusive disciplines')

Can confirm. 20% of Princeton students participate in a varsity sport. They don't offer athletic scholarships, but they recruit heavily and their financial aid is generous, so...Harvard, Hahvahd.

Incidentally, they beat Notre Dame for the 2026 men's lacrosse NCAA championship, their first NCAA championship since 2013 (fencing).

RE: Directors' Cup 2025-2026 - BostonCard - 06-01-2026

(05-31-2026, 09:36 PM)Papa John Wrote: In the case of baseball, UCLA somehow lost twice to Saint Mary's College, who lost twice to Cal Poly SLO at the Los Angeles Regional. So Cal Poly will face 16-seed West Virginia or unseeded Kentucky in a Super Regional next week.

https://x.com/collegebsbnews/status/2061236221456642113?s=61

Quote:UCLA was the first team ever to be ranked #1 wire-to-wire in the regular season. The Bruins did not lose a series all year.
They end up not even making it to their own regional final.

Crazy.

BC

RE: Directors' Cup 2025-2026 - slide - 06-02-2026

(06-01-2026, 10:40 PM)BostonCard Wrote: Crazy.

BC

7 #1 seeds (and hosts) lost in the first round, including the #1 (UCLA) and #2 (Ga Tech) national seeds.

RE: Directors' Cup 2025-2026 - Mick - 06-02-2026

(06-02-2026, 04:52 AM)slide Wrote:
(06-01-2026, 10:40 PM)BostonCard Wrote: Crazy.

BC

7 #1 seeds (and hosts) lost in the first round, including the #1 (UCLA) and #2 (Ga Tech) national seeds.

Baseball is a funny game. To quote Jim Bouton, "The ball is round, the bat is round, but you've got to hit it square."

RE: Directors' Cup 2025-2026 - BobK - 06-02-2026

Plus Ohio State with 36

RE: Directors' Cup 2025-2026 - Papa John - 06-02-2026

I don't think all of Harvard's 42 sports are NCAA-sanctioned; the same applies to Stanford.

I'm thinking of squash (the sport), rugby, men's rowing, etc.

Also, Harvard football is FCS/D2. Not sure about other sports.

I think to make it an apples-to-apples comparison, we would need to restrict the lists to D1--in some sports there's only one division, so that makes it easy--and NCAA-sanctioned.

I certainly don't have time to generate such a list and don't trust AI, but I'm going to stand by my claim that Stanford would be at or very near the top of the list as I've specified.

RE: Directors' Cup 2025-2026 - Canalejas - 06-02-2026

FCS is not D2

RE: Directors' Cup 2025-2026 - Papa John - 06-02-2026

(06-02-2026, 11:08 AM)Canalejas Wrote: FCS is not D2

Yeah, I wasn't sure which one it was. According to Google Harvard is FCS. My point is that Harvard is *not* FBS, so it's pointless to compare them with Stanford, Ohio State, etc.

RE: Directors' Cup 2025-2026 - Canalejas - 06-02-2026

This is why I preferred the old names for FBS and FCS. When they were D1-A and D1-AA it was easier to remember that the Ivy League, the Big Sky, and all the other schools that play football in the lower subdivision play other sports in regular old D1.

RE: Directors' Cup 2025-2026 - M T - 06-02-2026

(06-02-2026, 11:30 AM)Papa John Wrote:
(06-02-2026, 11:08 AM)Canalejas Wrote: FCS is not D2

Yeah, I wasn't sure which one it was. According to Google Harvard is FCS. My point is that Harvard is *not* FBS, so it's pointless to compare them with Stanford, Ohio State, etc.

Why is it pointless to compare them? The FCS schools have a smaller requirement (14) for number of sports required to be a Division I menber than FBS schools (16). But when the NCAA reports on the number of school teams in championship sports, they don't distinguish between FCS and FBS. Neither does the Directors Cup. Clearly the NCAA and Directors Cup compares them.

By my count, Stanford has 30 teams competing in the 38 NCAA sports available to Division I schools that have NCAA championship events. (31 out of 39 if you add in FBS football -- the NCAA doesn't have a championship for FBS, but it seems the NCAA still counts it as a distinct "championship sport" (hence, 39). 38 includes the FCS championship. Directors Cup gives points for FBS and FCS as distinct sports.)

Number of teams (2024-2025) in D-I ( "*" = Directors Cup more-equal sport)
* M Basketball 356
* W Basketball 354
W Cross Country 353
* W Soccer 341
W O T&F 345
W I T&F 339
* W VB 338
M Cross Country 321
W Tennis 304
M Golf 301
W Softball 301
* Baseball 300
M O T&F 295
M I T&F 273
W Golf 273
Football 257 (FBS+FCS)
M Tennis 237
M Soccer 206

By the way, despite any thought that Title IX would lead to equal number of male and female athletes, it seems that in Division I, the female athletes on championship teams have never been as many as the man athletes. About 16,000 more males in 2024-2025 (46% F, 54% M). That difference has been increasing the past few years. (In 2020-2021, it was 12,170 (46.7% F, 53.3% M))

RE: Directors' Cup 2025-2026 - Papa John - 06-02-2026

(06-02-2026, 01:18 PM)M T Wrote: <snip>

Why is it pointless to compare them? The FCS schools have a smaller requirement (14) for number of sports required to be a Division I menber than FBS schools (16). But when the NCAA reports on the number of school teams in championship sports, they don't distinguish between FCS and FBS. Neither does the Directors Cup. Clearly the NCAA and Directors Cup compares them.

<snip>

I stand corrected. It's not pointless for the Directors' Cup and NCAA to compare FCS and FBS.

Having said that, I think in terms of determining "who's better," it's pointless to compare FCS to FBS because of the level of competition. Of course, that's just my opinion, and folks like Jeff Sagarin do include FCS teams in his football ratings. For example, in 2025 Harvard defeated Stetson (the university, not the hat), Brown, Holy Cross, Cornell, Merrimack, Princeton, Dartmouth, Columbia, and Penn. They lost to Yale in the regular season finale and Villanova in the first round of the FCS playoffs. But even at 9-2, according to Sagarin, Harvard had the #142 best football team in the land. The top-rated FCS team, North Dakota State, only came in at #40.

I think that the Directors' Cup is in a difficult position when it comes to FCS schools, because, as you point out, their other sports--men's and women's basketball, softball, baseball, etc.--tend to be D1. The DC can't really lump the FCS schools with the "true" D2 schools, for the same level-of-competion reason so they treat them as D1.

RE: Directors' Cup 2025-2026 - Spiny_Norman - 06-02-2026

With only T&F remaining, Stanford has once again recorded an impressive sports year.

National Champions
Men's gymnastics
Women's golf

National Runners Up
Women's soccer (lost in final)
Women's swimming
Beach volleyball (lost in final)
Rowing

3rd place
Women's water polo (lost in semifinal)
Men's water polo (lost in semifinal)

Other top 10 finishes
Men's golf - 5th (lost in quarterfinal)
Women's lacrosse - 5th (lost in quarterfinal)
Women's cross country - 6th
Wrestling - 6th
Women's gymnastics - 7th
Men's soccer - 9th (lost in round of 16)
Women's volleyball - 9th (lost in round of 16)
Men's tennis - 9th (lost in round of 16)
Men's swimming - 10th
Women's fencing - 10th

Congratulations to all of these programs and thanks so much to all of the student-athletes for providing such great and memorable moments throughout the year. Stanford fans had a lot of great performances to cheer about in 2025-26.

RE: Directors' Cup 2025-2026 - Papa John - 06-02-2026

+1 googol, Spiny Norman!

A lot of great things happened for Stanford sports this year, and I am so appreciative of the coaches and athletes who represent my alma mater.

Also, according to @Direct_Cupdates on X, Stanford women's track could finish as high as third place if they win all four events in which they are entered :-)

RE: Directors' Cup 2025-2026 - Jamesy - 06-02-2026

(06-02-2026, 03:09 PM)Papa John Wrote: +1 googol, Spiny Norman!

A lot of great things happened for Stanford sports this year, and I am so appreciative of the coaches and athletes who represent my alma mater.

Also, according to @Direct_Cupdates on X, Stanford women's track could finish as high as third place if they win all four events in which they are entered :-)

Jones and Whittaker both have realistic shots at winning the long jump and 800 m, respectively. Jones could also score in the high jump. I'm less sanguine on Mena Scatchard scoring highly in the 1500m.

Last year, we finished 6th with 29 points from 4 scoring events, Willis winning the 800 m, Kennedy 3rd in the 5k, Jones 4th in the high jump and 2nd in the long jump. Will be challenging to match that many points this year.

RE: Directors' Cup 2025-2026 - fullmetal - 06-02-2026

"I just never thought I couldn't." --Lightning McQueen, Cars

Go Stanford!

RE: Directors' Cup 2025-2026 - M T - 06-02-2026

Stanford has a number of varsity athletic teams that compete in their leagues' national championships. More impressive results to add to Spiny's list.

(06-02-2026, 02:49 PM)Spiny_Norman Wrote: With only T&F remaining, Stanford has once again recorded an impressive sports year.

National Champions
Men's gymnastics
Women's golf
Artistic swimming (US Collegiate NC)
2x Women's sailing (ICSA Women's Team Race NC; ICSA Women’s Fleet Race NC)

National Runners Up
Women's soccer (lost in final)
Women's swimming
Beach volleyball (lost in final)
2x Coed sailing (ICSA Open Team Race; ICSA Open Fleet Race NC)
Women's Rowing

3rd place
Women's water polo (lost in semifinal)
Men's water polo (lost in semifinal)

Other top 10 finishes
Women's lightweight rowing - 4th (IRA NC)
Men's golf - 5th (lost in quarterfinal)
Women's lacrosse - 5th (lost in quarterfinal)
Men's rowing - 5th (IRA NC)
Women's cross country - 6th
Wrestling - 6th
Women's gymnastics - 7th
Men's soccer - 9th (lost in round of 16)
Women's volleyball - 9th (lost in round of 16)
Men's tennis - 9th (lost in round of 16)
Men's swimming - 10th
Women's fencing - 10th

Congratulations to all of these programs and thanks so much to all of the student-athletes for providing such great and memorable moments throughout the year. Stanford fans had a lot of great performances to cheer about in 2025-26.

Unfortunately, too many of those results will be ignored for the Directors' Cup. I believe both 3rd place finishes wili not count. They count (55 points) less than the 12th place finish for W Indoor T&F (63.75) and will be dropped.

Does anyone know why the GoStanford article on the Women's Indoor T&F NC indicates they got 9th with 21 points when the NCAA lists them as 12th with 19 points?

RE: Directors' Cup 2025-2026 - BostonCard - 06-03-2026

Texas took the first game in the college World Series against Texas Tech in softball. They just need to beat Canady and the Red Raiders one more time tomorrow or Friday for the national championship. here’s hoping Canady can still help Stanford.

BC

RE: Directors' Cup 2025-2026 - Vandelay - 06-04-2026

Welp. I presume that wraps up the Directors Cup for Texas. No way they don't win now.