If you haven’t followed along all of these years, there’s a little friendly competition between college athletic programs known as the “Director’s Cup. It all started in 1993 and the premise is that an athletic program that does the best across some of the most popular sports wins the cup. The scoring system is somewhat complicated, and we won’t get too deep into it here, but you can read all about it if you so desire.
Basically, by winning the Director’s Cup, you can claim to have the best athletic program for a calendar year. Ohio State has never won it, but has come close many times and is routinely inside the top ten in the overall standings.
However, this year, the Buckeye athletic program is looking to make history and is currently in first place by a wide margin after all the winter sports have been scored. It’s not a done deal that OSU will finish in the No. 1 spot because it’ll have competition from Texas and almost perennial winner Stanford, but there’s a good chance that Ohio State can take home the prize for the first time ever. Currently, the standings of the top five look like this:
- Ohio State – 858.00
- Texas – 758.75
- Stanford – 754.50
- North Carolina – 686.50
- Alabama – 634.25
The winner will almost assuredly come between the top three, but it’ll really depend on some likely unexpected results to sort it all out. We’ll keep in touch with it all and keep you posted.
However, in the meantime, we thought we’d take a look at where all the Big Ten athletic programs stack up when it comes to total domination across all sports. Obviously, Ohio State is No. 1 in the conference based on this, but where do the other teams fall? Here’s a look at where each team is ranked by conference and where they are based on the national ranking as well. We go from worst to first.
14
Rutgers Scarlet Knights
Scoring and national ranking
Total Score | 89.50
National Rank | No. 129
13
Illinois Fighting Illini
Scoring and national ranking
Total Score | 173.00
National Rank | No. 74
12
Purdue Boilermakers
Scoring and national ranking
Total Score | 238.50
National Rank | No. 56
11
Michigan State Spartans
Scoring and national ranking
Total Score | 268.00
National Rank | No. 51
10
Nebraska Cornhuskers
Scoring and national ranking
Total Score | 329.75
National Rank | No. 41
9
Maryland Terrapins
Scoring and national ranking
Total Score | 338.50
National Rank | No. 39
8
Iowa Hawkeyes
Scoring and national ranking
Total Score | 349.50
National Rank | No. 35
7
Northwestern Wildcats
Scoring and national ranking
Total Score | 396.50
National Rank | No. 29
6
Indiana Hoosiers
Scoring and national ranking
Total Score | 407.50
National Rank | No. 26
5
Minnesota Golden Gophers
Scoring and national ranking
Total Score | 443.50
National Rank | No. 23
4
Michigan Wolverines
Scoring and national ranking
Total Score | 497.50
National Rank | No. 19
3
Penn State Nittany Lions
Scoring and national ranking
Total Score | 624.50
National Rank | No. 7
2
Wisconsin Badgers
Scoring and national ranking
Total Score | 624.75
National Rank | No. 6
1
Ohio State Buckeyes
Scoring and national ranking
Total Score | 858.00
National Rank | No. 1
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