U-M #1 in Director Cup standings entering Spring
The standings were released this morning following the conclusion of the winter sports season. A good start but we’ll need to finish strong in the spring to bring it home!
1. Michigan — 1000.25 points
2. Stanford — 851.25 points
3. Ohio State — 828 points
4. Notre Dame — 814 points
5. North Carolina — 702 points
6. Texas — 679.50
7. Wisconsin — 662.50 points
8. Kentucky — 662.25 points
9. North Carolina State — 644 points
10. Arkansas — 634.25 points
April 21st, 2022 at 12:13 PM ^
Really not a fan of 2-4.
April 21st, 2022 at 12:15 PM ^
Are UNC and Texas more your flavor?
April 21st, 2022 at 12:35 PM ^
yes and no.
April 21st, 2022 at 12:30 PM ^
I'm really not a fan of 2-10.
April 21st, 2022 at 12:49 PM ^
Agree, but Stanford doesn't give me indigestion.
As a Cal alum, Stanfurd can go fuck itself.
the end
You keep saying that. You seem to have a big chip on your shoulder.
I've always had a soft spot for Arkansas
Really not a fan of 3-5.
I really don't care for #5 not getting obliterated at the athletic and academic levels for their own bullshit.
April 21st, 2022 at 12:20 PM ^
Do we give any of this credit to Dave Brandon's planning? I didn't care for him, but this *was* his goal back in the day and probably helped set some of it in motion (though certainly not the football part... ugh.)
Either way... suck it everyone else!
No.
Was AD for just shy of five years. Not in the position long enough to have a significant impact. (Not saying he had no impact...but there's only so much you can do in under five years.)
DB left almost 8 years ago. Too long ago for there to be a significant ripple effect.
Oh Brandon had a lot of significant impact:
- Chased a lot of good people away
- Busted the 100,000 attendance streak under his watch
- Gave us Lochdog
I believe the only thing that remains from the days of "Lochdog" is the site tag "Lochdog is not a good personal brand". It's a long, clumsy tag, but it did get rather a lot of use for a while.
I will say that when I complained about DB, the most vocal pushback I got was from the non-revenue sports. I'm not ready to give him credit for this since our non-revenue sports have been consistently good, but he had supporters within those sports.
No. Go read Endzone by JUB. He was so tunnel vision focused on the Directors Cup that he had a lot of good non revenue coaches on edge, chased them away, or fired them after just a down season or two even if they had great track records. He had unfairly high expectations of non revenue sports but didn’t hold the 3 revenue sports to the same standard (otherwise he would’ve fired Hoke after 2013). Which makes no sense because you’d think one would have higher expectations for the vaunted Michigan football program than the Michigan soccer or tennis programs?
Michigan has finished in the top 10 for 21 seasons out of a possible 27. 3 of the times we didn’t were under Brandon. We’ve always been close to the top so the data doesn’t really conclusively show that Brandon or any AD has had any impact on the Directors Cup finishes.
Selfishly, I mainly care about sustained success in the big 3 sports and Warde’s done a great job there. It’s a cherry on top to see success in all the other sports.
Yes, I have read Endzone (as well as Three & Out and Fourth & Long) and I am well aware of the negative aspects of Brandon's legacy. I'm just curious how much (if any) if the current success of the Directors Cup race is attributable to him.
Simply saying that his 8 year absence removes his impact is inaccurate (for example, I credit at least a portion of our mbball success to Bill Martin for bringing in Beilein and getting his program going - the momentum from which boosted Howard's success... including some of Beilein's guys that played this year). It takes time to build a successful program in any sport - the tenure of one AD may not be enough to encompass that.
With all that being said - I *do* give Warde more credit to the success than any of the other recent ADs (though Hackett & Martin made some positive contributions... probably Brandon, too).
Read Bacon's book. DB put a lot of effort into fundraising for and building state of the art facilities for non-rev sports. I specifically remember the passage describing the softball team's reaction to their new stadium and training facilities. I also seem to remember at least one other non-rev got a major new building during his time as AD.
I have several problems with his performance as AD, but he clearly went the extra mile to take care of non-rev sports (caveat: his treatment of some of the non-rev coaches).
I had the idea to balance the budget. Clinton may have done it, but I claim credit.
No, ofc we don't give Brandon any credit for this lmao
April 21st, 2022 at 12:36 PM ^
Does anyone with more insight into the Director's cup scoring have insight to our chances to hold off Stanford?
April 21st, 2022 at 12:51 PM ^
This is, I believe, the best position we've ever had at this point in the season. Stanford often does better in the warm-weather sports (shocking, for sure), yet since they pared back much of their programs post-covid it seems we have a real shot at winning.
News reports indicate Stanford reversed itself after deciding to eliminate 11 varsity sports, and thereafter reinstated them. They have 36 varsity sports. I don't believe any were actually eliminated.
Unfortunately, they did lose a number of athletes in the sports that they canceled and then reinstated. So they may not be as competitive as in normal years
I would say it’s a50-50 proposition
bit M baseball and softball have kind of shit the bed this year relative to recent expectations. So I’m not as optimistic as our current position would normally cause me to be
Stanford men's sports include fencing, sailing, volleyball, and water polo, none of which Michigan men compete in.
Michigan men compete in hockey and lacrosse, neither of which Stanford competes in.
Stanford women's sports include six that Michigan women don't compete in: artistic swimming (I assume same thing as synchronized swimming), beach volleyball, fencing, rowing Ltw (I assume Ltw means lightweight), sailing, and squash.
There are no Michigan women's sports that Stanford doesn't compete in.
I don't know which of these Stanford sports are spring and which are fall, or how good Stanford is at any of them, but based on the total number of sports we don't compete in, I wouldn't count Stanford out just yet.
For what it's worth, women's lightweight rowing is not an NCAA sport; so I'd guess it does not count towards the Director's Cup. Like men's heavyweight and lightweight rowing, women's lightweight rowing is governed by the the Intercollegiate Rowing Association, which has its own championships that are independent of the NCAA.
If it somehow does count towards the Director's Cup, it's a spring sport. Stanford was ranked second at the beginning of the season.
Thanks for the info. It makes me wonder whether the other sports I listed are all NCAA sports, like squash or fencing.
My understanding is that Stanford is almost always in first after both the Fall and Winters sports seasons. So Michigan being in the lead at this point is promising, but guarantees nothing.
April 21st, 2022 at 12:53 PM ^
Would be nice for the AD but I don't get too excited about it for some reason. I care more about individual championships.
It would be interesting to understand all of the sports that are still in play and how the competitive landscape looks.
Stanford has more Spring sports that qualify yes?
Michigan has had pretty extraordinary year in mid and top tier sports combined.
This sounds like a job for WD...
He would be all over it!
I don’t think chess is included but maybe a chess mind is needed to figure it out.
If only an overzealous mod hadn't booted him...
we REALLLLLLY need baseball to just QUALIFY for the tournament....
The Southern Schools ALWAYS clean up and come from behind to win or jump us after the Spring/Summer sports.
Stanford
Florida
UCLA
North Carolina
Texas
USC
UCLA
We likely need Softball OR Baseball (better yet, both) to pick it up if we're gonna win.
University. Top 10 rankings:
Stanford. 27. *
Florida. 27
UCLA. 23
North Carolina. 22. *
Michigan. 21
Texas. 21. *
USC. 18
(OSU is next at 13, but I don't count them)
*
UNC won the first one *
Stanford won the next 25 *
Texas won last year
Baseball and softball aren't really as bad as people make them out to be. Neither will make the world series but both should finish near the top of the big ten.
They need to make it into post season play....
Directors cup is a joke.
This has to be an invention of Stanford University itself or Stanford alums. Its a joke, its weighted towards schools that offer more sports to participate in and toward warm weather schools. Stanford won it 26 years in a row. No cold weather team has ever won. Of the top seven teams that have ranked in the top ten the most, only Michigan is a cold weather team.
With that said, I hope like HELL Michigan can score enough in the spring to win this. The average points by the past winners is about 1500 but UT won it last year after Stanford canceled 11 sports but then reversed its decision. UT scored 1252 points so........