ACC Directors Cup Analysis: Introduction

Part of the great thing about being a Virginia fan is knowing that no matter what part of the school year you're in, you've got a sports team you can cheer for that is competing at the highest level. We may take some crap from the country bumpkins down to the southwest due to our football team's recent performances, but for me it is easy to look at the whole picture and smile.

With three(ish - Notre Dame is 90% of a member) new schools joining the ACC earlier this month, I thought it would be an appropriate time to take a look back at the last ten years and see how the ACC has fared in all sports during the time since the last expansion. I'll start with the 2003-2004 school year, which was the year before Virginia Tech and Miami joined the conference. Ironically, it's also the last time Virginia beat Virginia Tech in football. The analysis will conclude with the final standings of the 2013 Directors Cup with UCLA winning the College World Series last month.

This project started out as two articles - one about the "old guard" of the ACC and one about the new members. But as I dug into the data, I saw too many interesting tidbits and it has ballooned into a lot more than that. As I post the articles, I'll update this Introduction with links to each one, so feel free to bookmark this page and check back often.

We'll start off on Wednesday with a look at how Virginia has done over the past ten years. The recently announced final results in the Directors Cup for 2013 have the Wahoos in 20th. That's down from a peak of finishing 3rd in 2010. Check back on Wednesday to see some analysis on what has happened over the years.

Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Virginia's Performance
Part 3: The Old Guard
Part 4: The First Big East Raid
Part 5: The Second Big East Raid