Tar Heels Finish Third in Final Directors' Cup Standings
June 27, 2007 CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - The University of North Carolina finished third in the nation in the 2006-07 U.S. Sports Academy Directors' Cup, UNC's sixth consecutive Top 10 finish and the eighth Top 5 finish in the 14-year history of the award. Carolina qualified 24 of its 28 sports for NCAA post-season competition. Highlights included a women's soccer national championship, a second consecutive runner-up finish at the baseball College World Series and a repeat trip to the women's basketball Final Four. The Directors' Cup measures a school's postseason success in men's and women's sports. Each school is ranked based upon its 10-highest men's and 10-highest women's finishes. The Tar Heels won the inaugural trophy in 1993-94 (the award was then known as the Sears Cup) and have averaged a sixth-place finish in the last six years. "It's once again a credit to our coaches, our student-athletes for performing academically as well as competitively and our staff for all of its behind-the-scenes support," says Director of Athletics Dick Baddour. "First and foremost, it's a credit to the University of North Carolina because so many outstanding people wish to be part of this great University. It's exciting to watch our teams work and improve and then succeed. We never take a high finish like this for granted because they are so difficult to achieve. I am extremely proud of the consistency our program has shown despite such fiercely competitive opposition at the ACC and national levels." Stanford won the 2006-07 Division I title for the 13th consecutive year with 1429 points. UCLA finished second for the second straight year with 1232 points. UNC was third with 1161.33 points, giving the Tar Heels their highest finish in the standings since a second-place performance in 1997-98. Michigan was fourth (1135.25), Southern California was fifth (1103.50), Florida was sixth (1064.25), Tennessee was seventh (1045.75), Texas was eighth (1037.25), California was ninth (1030) and Arizona State was 10th (1005). Carolina led all Atlantic Coast Conference schools for the 12th time in 14 years and the third year in a row. Three other ACC schools finished in the Top 20 - Duke was 11th, Virginia was 13th and Florida State was 15th. Five of the Top 10 schools were from the Pac 10 Conference, two were from the SEC and one each from the ACC, Big Ten and Big 12. Twenty-four of Carolina's 28 varsity sports qualified for NCAA postseason play. In addition to baseball's second-place finish, the women's basketball team tied for third, men's basketball and men's and women's lacrosse advanced to the final eight and earned fifth-place points, men's outdoor track and field was sixth and women's tennis reached the Sweet 16 and earned ninth-place points. Carolina's yearly finish in the Directors' Cup: * indicates highest-finish among ACC schools that year |
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