Directors’ Cup Final Standings – 2012

The final 2011-2012 Directors’ Cup standings are out for Debbie Yow’s second year as Athletic Director at NC State. SFN has already posted an entry and now we’ll take a little closer look at some of the numbers. And as a quick clarification, despite the new playoff system on the way, in this article a BCS school is defined as a football playing member of the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Big East, Pac-12 or SEC plus Notre Dame.

Last Year – 2011
For comparison, let’s first take a quick look at NC State’s performance in last year’s standings. NC State finished 67th in the final 2010-2011 standings, which ranked 11th in the ACC and 57th out of 66 BCS schools. There were 10 non-BCS schools that finished above NC State.

Current Standings – 2012
In the 2012 Directors’ Cup rankings NC State finished 37th, which ranked 7th out of the 12 ACC schools and 37th out of 67 BCS schools.
NC State finished ahead of all non-BCS schools.

ACC Rankings
5. Florida St
8. North Carolina
15. Virginia
16. Duke
27. Maryland
35. Virginia Tech
37. NC State
54. Clemson
59. Miami
60. Boston College
72. Georgia Tech
92. Wake Forest

ACC Schools On The Rise
Florida St and Boston College both moved up 4 spots in the rankings and Virginia Tech moved up 10 spots.

For the second straight year, NC State was the most improved ACC program in the Directors’ Cup standings, moving up 30 spots from last year and 22 the year before. In Lee Fowler’s last season as AD, NC State ranked 89th in the standings. In Debbie Yow’s 2 years as AD, State has moved up 52 spots.

ACC Schools On The Decline
North Carolina fell 2 spots in the rankings from last year, Clemson fell 7 spots, Miami and Virginia both fell 8 spots, Maryland fell 10 spots, Duke fell 11 spots, Georgia Tech fell 13 spots and Wake Forest had the biggest decline in the conference, falling 18 spots in the rankings.

There has been a lot of discussion about the decline of the ACC and here two-thirds of the conference finished worse in the Directors’ Cup standings compared to last year.

In an interesting point, Wake Forest’s AD Ron Wellman has always seemed to be highly regarded and well respected for the work he has done in Winston-Salem. However, Wake Forest has fallen all the way to 92nd after being as high as 23rd back in 2007 and has fallen off 16, 21 and 18 spots in each of the last 3 years.

Various BCS Conference Stats

Top five BCS schools:
1. Stanford
2. Florida
3. UCLA
4. Ohio St
5. Florida St

Bottom five BCS schools:
88. Cincinnati
92. Wake Forest
106. Washington St
111. Rutgers
131. Pitt

The top team in each conference were:
ACC: Florida St, 5th
Big 12: Texas, 6th
Big East: Louisville, 32th
Big Ten: Ohio St, 4th
Pac-12: Stanford, 1st
SEC: Florida, 2nd

The worst team in each conference were:
ACC: Wake Forest, 92nd
Big 12: Texas Tech, 71nd
Big East: Pitt, 131st
Big Ten: Iowa, 48th
Pac-12: Washington St, 106th
SEC: Mississippi St, 80th

Average ranking for each conference:
Big Ten: 28.8
SEC: 34.2
Pac-12: 35.8
Big 12: 38.0
ACC: 40.0
Big East: 74.3

In another sign of the decline of the ACC, the conference is only above the Big East in average ranking. And the two schools from the Big East that will be joining the ACC, Pitt and Syracuse, ranked 50th and 131st, which would bring the ACC’s average down even further to 47.2.

Most Improved BCS Schools:
Cincinnati: +62
Rutgers: +47
NC State: +30
Washington St: +29
Kansas: +16

Of the 5 most improved schools, NC State was the only to rank among the top 50.

BCS Schools With Biggest Decline:
Texas Tech: -23
Wake Forest: -18
UConn: -17
Georgia Tech: -13
Ole Miss: -12

Another sign of the downslide of the ACC, 2 of the top 5 declines were ACC schools, Wake Forest and Georgia Tech.

Conclusions
There are 2 major points to take away from the 2012 Directors’ Cup standings. The first, NC State continues to make major strides and improvements under Debbie Yow including moving up 52 spots in the Directors’ Cup ranking in 2 years.

The other point is that the perceived decline of the ACC is shown in the standings. Two-thirds of the conference fell in the rankings and went from having 4 top 10 schools a year ago to only 2 this year. Two of the biggest falls among BCS schools in the rankings were ACC schools. The average rank of the ACC ranked only ahead of the Big East. Wake Forest is one of the 4 worst BCS schools and future ACC school Pitt is the absolute worst BCS school (although as a West Virginia fan that warms my heart). And you have to wonder if Maryland’s ranking will fall off after they drop 7 sports.

So as an NC State fan there is much to be happy about (while also aware there is still much work to be done.) But as a member of the ACC in this crazy time of conference expansion, bowl tie-ins and TV contracts, maybe there should be some concern about the ACC.

About WV Wolf

Graduated from NCSU in 1996 with a degree in statistics. Born and inbred in West "By God" Virginia and now live in Raleigh where I spend my time watching the Wolfpack, the Mountaineers and the Carolina Hurricanes as well as making bar graphs for SFN. I'm @wvncsu on the Twitter machine.

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12 Responses to Directors’ Cup Final Standings – 2012

  1. jclan6 08/01/2012 at 1:18 PM #

    not to beat this dead horse to death, but isn’t it reasonable to consider that vacation of wins in the football program could affect past standings in the Directors Cup. Not that it would matter on the field but why give credit when credit is NOT due…

  2. I-Like-Tacos 08/01/2012 at 1:42 PM #

    How about UMd’s future in regards to the Director’s Cup? With all the cutbacks they made, I’m sure it will affect their future ranking somehow. Just how much and how dramatic will it be, do we think?

  3. sequoyah 08/01/2012 at 2:13 PM #

    How about they put an asterisk next to the schools cited with Major Violations cited in the prior four years.

    Stanford
    Florida
    UCLA
    *Ohio State
    *Florida State
    Texas
    *Southern California
    *North Carolina
    Texas A&M
    *Michigan
    *California
    *Penn State….

  4. db321 08/01/2012 at 2:15 PM #

    While true that “the average rank of the ACC ranked only ahead of the Big East”, the ACC was very close to the other major conferences and could easily move up with a few schools improving…2nd – 5th place was only separated by 6 spots.

    Average ranking for each conference:
    Big Ten: 28.8
    SEC: 34.2
    Pac-12: 35.8
    Big 12: 38.0
    ACC: 40.0
    Big East: 74.3

  5. WTNY 08/01/2012 at 2:35 PM #

    Recent discovery for me relating to the Director’s Cup (from the .pdf linked by WV Wolf):

    “NOTE: 20 total teams can be scored for the final standings (10 M, 10 W sports)”

  6. MP 08/01/2012 at 4:43 PM #

    Florida State better not get too big for its britches, or Swofford will put them in their place.

    Pitt is the worst BCS team?? Ugh.

  7. db321 08/01/2012 at 5:15 PM #

    Need to add Notre Dame to the ACC and the rest the ACC needs to improve their rankings. It would be interesting to look at the 3 year average numbers and 3 year trends.

  8. projectwentynine 08/01/2012 at 6:39 PM #

    “In Lee Fowler’s last season as AD, NC State ranked 89th in the standings. In Debbie Yow’s 2 years as AD, State has moved up 52 spots.”

    Nice legacy Lee.

  9. 61Packer 08/01/2012 at 7:42 PM #

    And don’t forget John’s legacy coming in at #131.

  10. Wulfpack 08/02/2012 at 7:53 AM #

    Wellman might want to start putting feelers out for a new job. Wake has taken a huge step backward. The hiring of Bzdelik continues to show that it was a terrible, perhaps emotionally charged, hire.

  11. ryebread 08/02/2012 at 12:28 PM #

    The Bzz hire should and will cause Wellman his job. It’s not just the hiring of Bzz, but the lack of oversight that allowed the situation to get so bad that Bzz was hired.

    It’s not just men’s basketball though. Baseball and football have slipped a bit. Women’s basketball is in the conference cellar.

    As for NC State, we’re finally headed in the right direction. I see no reason why we can’t be a top 25 school in the Director’s cup. As long as we do it within budget and within the rules, I’ll be ecstatic.

    I think it will be quite interesting to plot the trajectory of Maryland and NC State in the next three years. MD has slipped in two years since Yow left. NC State has jumped considerably. I wonder if this trend continues.

  12. PackerInRussia 08/02/2012 at 10:19 PM #

    I wonder if WF is helping foot the bill for Pitt to get to the ACC next year.

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