Steady Slipping in the Cup Standings

From Dooley (left) to Damon (right) to McGarity (center), in the quest for the “cups” of college sports (both of them), UGA athletics have steadily slipped with each succeeding athletic director.

I was intrigued with the recent post on The Dawgvent started by @drdon50 regarding Georgia’s current ranking for the annual NACDA Directors’ Cup, whereby points are awarded to athletic programs based on their finish in polls/championship events. Stanford has won the cup for the last 20-something years in a row, which brings up a good point by @LawDawg86: Twenty sports are considered (10 men, 10 women) for the cup standings, yet Georgia participates in 18, meaning the school receives two “zeros.” The highly-ranked schools, like Stanford, compete in more than 20 sports, often excelling in country club athletics, Olympic sports, and the more obscure.

“Not defending the AD, just pointing out all the facts,” LawDawg86 concluded. In agreement—not defending or attacking Greg McGarity—I wanted to discover the facts regarding the NACDA Directors’ Cup standings and how Georgia performed during the tenures of its last three athletic directors.

The standings began being released annually with the 1993-94 academic year and have continued over the last 23 years: 11 years under AD Vince Dooley (1993-94 through 2003-04), six years under AD Damon Evans (2004-05 through 2009-10), and six years under AD McGarity (2010-11 through 2015-16). As mentioned, since schools compete in a varying number of sports, I decided to consider only the Southeastern Conference, and just the 12 schools which have been members for the duration of the time being measured (1993-94 to present), because schools in the SEC more or less/nearly compete in the same sports.

For the final 11 years Vince Dooley was athletic director, Georgia’s average national ranking in the Directors’ Cup was No. 11½, while the Bulldogs had a 2.6 average finish of the 12 SEC teams at the time. Their average point total was good for a solid second-place finish in the conference, trailing top-ranked Florida by an average of 117.7 points... TO READ REST AND VIEW TABLES.