Here’s to hoping the collective performance of our Athletic Department has finally bottomed out. To those who refuse to believe things have gotten as bad as many so-called pessimists often insist they have, avoid the annual Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup Final Standings, updated Tuesday, at all costs. A quick glance at it will explain just how bad things have gotten around the program newly appointed Athletic Director Debbie Yow will take over July 15.
The annual Directors’ Cup standings rank athletic programs by assigning points based on where teams finish nationally in as many as 20 sports. The rankings take into account the performances of each school’s 10 best men’s and women’s teams, with 100 points awarded for each sport that finishes first in the nation.
A year ago, N.C. State was ranked No. 74 with 265.30 points, and finished with a better ranking than only one ACC school, Boston College, which was ranked No. 75. This year’s rankings are even worse for the Pack faithful, with State No. 89 with 203.88 points, easily the lowest point total of any ACC school.
Fans looking for a positive twist on the new rankings may point out that being one of the top 90 programs on a list including more than 280 is not so bad.
But comparing us with other ACC teams makes this list that much uglier.
It’s bad enough that a program with a history that includes two national championships in men’s basketball is ranked behind schools such as Texas-El Paso and Middle Tennessee State, among other schools rarely associated with athletic excellence. Making matters worse is the fact that of the 12 teams in the ACC, only four are ranked outside of the top 50. Furthermore, N.C. State is the only public university of the four schools-Boston College, Miami, Wake Forest and State-ranked between 50 and 90. And it’s not as though, according to these rankings, we were right on the heels of the competition. Four conference rivals, Virgina, North Carolina, Duke and Florida State, are among the Top 10. After State, the lowest ranked team in these standings is Boston College at No. 63
But on a very necessary positive note, things might be looking brighter because there is, after all, only place to go from the bottom: up.
Another reason for optimism comes in the form of our new athletic director’s track record at Maryland, one that indicates that such futility is something she will not tolerate. In 16 years with the Terps, she guided Maryland to 20 national championships. State fans can find consolation for their program’s lowly national standing in recent Directors’ Cups by looking closer to the top of those same standings, where Yow kept Maryland for the last five years. Over the past five years, State’s average rank was No. 59 and Maryland’s was No. 35.
No one, especially not State fans, expects Yow to kickstart a meteoric rise to the top of these standings. But at the very worst, her track record shows we will be closer to a single-digit ranking than a triple-digit one.
