The First Director's Cup Standings Announced

I admit it - I'm a sucker for season-long, cross-sport, intercollegiate competition, with the stranger scoring the better. Hence my fascination with the Carlyle Cup (currently at UNC 5.5, Duke 4.5). And they don't get any stranger than the Director's Cup, compiling the finishes across 20 different sports. North Carolina won the inaugural cup back in 1994, and remains the only school without "Leland" or "Junior" in its name to take home the trophy. In fact, here are their finishes to date:

1994 - 1st
1995 - 2nd
1996 - 6th
1997 - 2nd
1998 - 2nd (tie)
1999 - 17th (tie)
2000 - 5th
2001 - 15th
2002 - 4th
2003 - 8th
2004 - 7th
2005 - 9th
2006 - 4th

Only twice has UNC not led the ACC in this competition - 1999, where they fell behind Duke and Virginia, and 2005 where Duke took 5th.

The competition is more about which schools can lavishly fund their athletic departments than anything else, with the standings populated by the same teams every year. In addition to Stanford (12 wins, 1 runner-up), the list is populated with the same schools every year - UCLA (13 Top 10 appearances), Florida (13), Michigan (11), Texas (10), Southern Cal (9), Arizona (9) and Penn State (7), primarily. Of course, the first standings, released today only cover men's and women's cross country and field hockey. 100 points are given to the champion in each sport, 90 to the runner-up, and various other combinations to the schools that made the tournament or championship meet. So Colorodo (1st in Men's CC, 2nd in Women's) has the lead, with Stanford (1st in Women's, 4th in Men's) 10 points behind. The ACC shakes out like this:

4. Virginia (14th in Men's and Women's CC, Field Hockey quarterfinalist - 156 pts)
   
6. Duke (10th in Women's CC, Field Hockey semifinalist - 143 pts)
   
9. Wake Forest (27th in Women's CC, Field Hockey runner-up - 110 pts)
   
10. Maryland (Field Hockey National Champions - 100 pts)
    
18. North Carolina State (19th in Men's CC, 16th in Women's - 78 pts)
    
37. Virginia Tech (18th in Women's CC - 38 pts)
    
39. North Carolina (31st in Women's CC, made the Field Hockey tournament - 37 pts)
    
55. Boston College (30th in Women's CC - 14 pts)

Carolina March mid-major favorite UC Santa Barbara sits at 15th (27th in Men's CC, 9th in Women's). The remaining fall sports should improve UNC's standings somewhat, with men's and women's soccer, women's volleyball (not so much), men's football (no help there) and water polo, which is only a club sport at Chapel Hill.