Camilla Scott
BYU’s conference dominance and strong athletic program has led the Cougars to an eighth place ranking in the final winter 2000 Sears Directors’ Cup Division I standings.
“We’ve been in the top 25 over the last six years,” said David Duff Tittle, associate athletic director of external relations.
Last year, after the men’s NCAA volleyball championship, BYU finished 12th, improving six places over their 1997-98 season 18th ranking.
“The Sears Cup ranks overall dominance of schools across the country,” Tittle said. “It tells the success of the sports program as a whole.”
Standford University has won six of the seven Sears Cups awarded for Division I.
“They win a lot of national championships in Olympic sports and thus score a lot of points,” Tittle said.
Standford placed second in men’s track and field, third in women’s swimming and fourth in both fencing and men’s swimming to earn a total of 320 of its 970 points. Michigan, Nebraska and Penn State follow.
Glen Tuckett, former BYU athletic director, said he can’t think of a better way to compare all the sports on a national scale. He is grateful BYU has done so well.
“It’s not something that happened last week,” Tuckett said.
Tuckett was a member of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics’s Executive Committee from 1987-1991. He also won the NACDA/NIT Athletic Directors Award in 1997 for outstanding accomplishments in athletics.
“Because of our overall program, we’ve done well, even without basketball and football,” Tuckett said.
The men’s basketball team didn’t score any points for BYU this year in the Sears Cup.
“That’s one thing that hurt us,” Tittle said. “Football and basketball have struggled so they haven’t scored points.”
The NACDA (organized in 1965), USAToday and Sears sponsor the annual Sears Directors’ Cup.
Up to twenty sports, 10 men’s and 10 women’s, are included in the calculation of the scores.
Points are given depending on where the team finishes in national competition. An NCAA victory awards the school 100 points towards the Cup.
In individual sports, such as track and field, points are awarded to each individual finish.
When there are double seasons, as in track and field, the highest finish between the seasons will receive the points.
In the winter standings, BYU women’s track national sixth place finish received 78 points, the most of any BYU team. If the outdoor season finishes higher than indoor’s sixth place, the NACDA will increase their points.
The winner of the Sears Cup receives a Waterford crystal trophy from Sears and a $5,000 postgraduate scholarship for each NCAA division and the NAIA.
Lee McElroy, chair of the Sears Directors’ Cup Committee and director of athletics at American University, talks about the purpose of the scholarship on the NACDA Web site.
“The scholarship component of the Sears Directors’ Cup program, like the trophy component, aims to recognize and reward the best in the nation.
“The distinguished scholarship winners represent the outstanding group of students who support their institutions both athletically and academically,” McElroy said.
The trophies will be presented during the NACDA Scholarship Awards Luncheon in June.
