Rutgers & the Directors Cup: 1st Winter Rankings

The first rankings for the winter season in the Directors Cup came out last week.  Basketball - still playing its tournaments - was not a part of the scoring.  We reported the fall standings back in January.

The award, sponsored by Learfield Sports and NACDA, is a "program that honors institutions maintaining a broad-based program, achieving success in many sports, both men's and women's."  It isn't just football and basketball.  It's across the board success.

No hoops this time, you ask?  Be thankful for small favors.

What the first winter rankings did include was wrestling (yeah us!), track and field (not as bad as you might think), women's ice hockey (crickets), along with rifle and pistol....seriously.

With this first scoring, Rutgers sits at No. 54 nationally in Division 1.  That's a drop of ten spots since the final fall rankings which included women's soccer's No. 4 ranking, worth 83 of fall's 133 points.  And we're currently tenth in the Big Ten; that's also a drop of four spots within the conference.

But, before you get too excited, remember what I said: this doesn't include hoops. Or swimming or hockey or gymnastics.  We'll likely pick up a few points here and there, but scoring is based on final rankings and there won't be too many points scored in those sports.

Big Ten

The conference has four schools in the top ten after the first round of scoring.  Wisconsin (No. 12) adds a fifth in the top 20.

Rutgers won't be scoring too many more points, and it is entirely possible that it will drop further down the standings - both nationally and in conference - once hoops is added.  Not to mention the other winter sports where RU did not have great seasons.

Lots of work to do, Pat.