With Virginia's heartbreaking 3-2 loss last night, the 2013-2014 athletic season has come to an end. Despite how that loss feels now, the baseball season, and the year as a whole, was an excellent one for Virginia. The program placed 4th in the final Directors' Cup standings, the highest since the program finished 3rd in 2009-2010.
The Directors' Cup is an award that is presented to the school with the best overall athletic's department. Universities receive points for each and every NCAA sport, and at the end of each year, the points are tallied up and Stanford is presented with a pretty crystal trophy. (Really...it looks like this).
The official standings have yet to be released on the Cup's website, but here is what the final top 5 will look like:
1. Stanford
2. Florida
3. Notre Dame
4. Virginia
5. Penn State
Stanford wrapped up it's 20th consecutive title. After UNC won the Cup in its inaugural 93-94 season, the Cardinal have won every year since. Florida placed second for the third consecutive year.
Along with Notre Dame and Virginia, Florida State and North Carolina will represent the ACC in the top 15 of the standings.
Virginia's 4th place finish represents a nice rebound after that 09-10 third place finish. UVA had finished 7th, then 15, then 20th before returning to the top 5. And, much to Wahoo fans' chagrin, the finish was achieved without a national championship. Previously, Virginia had won at least one natty each season going back to 09-10. A baseball win would have leapfrogged Virginia over Notre Dame into third place in the Directors' Cup was well.
UVA also looks to finish 4th in the men's version of the Capital One Cup, though a baseball championship would have meant a 1st place finish.
That system differs from the Directors' Cup by dividing men's and women's sports, weighting them (so, for example, football and baseball count more than volleyball), and imposing a sharper scoring system (fewer teams receive points, with a steep drop-of from first to second). Here are the standings before baseball. Virginia previously sat in 14th place, but will earn 36 points for its baseball finish, which should leap the Hoos into 4th place, unless something funky happens with the final USA Today baseball poll, which the standings are based on..
Here's to a fantastic UVA sports season!