The final 2011-2012 Directors’ Cup standings are out for Debbie Yow’s second year as Athletic Director at NC State. SFN has already posted an entry and now we’ll take a little closer look at some of the numbers. And as a quick clarification, despite the new playoff system on the way, in this article a BCS school is defined as a football playing member of the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Big East, Pac-12 or SEC plus Notre Dame.
Last Year – 2011
For comparison, let’s first take a quick look at NC State’s performance in last year’s standings. NC State finished 67th in the final 2010-2011 standings, which ranked 11th in the ACC and 57th out of 66 BCS schools. There were 10 non-BCS schools that finished above NC State.
Current Standings – 2012
In the 2012 Directors’ Cup rankings NC State finished 37th, which ranked 7th out of the 12 ACC schools and 37th out of 67 BCS schools.
NC State finished ahead of all non-BCS schools.
ACC Rankings
5. Florida St
8. North Carolina
15. Virginia
16. Duke
27. Maryland
35. Virginia Tech
37. NC State
54. Clemson
59. Miami
60. Boston College
72. Georgia Tech
92. Wake Forest
ACC Schools On The Rise
Florida St and Boston College both moved up 4 spots in the rankings and Virginia Tech moved up 10 spots.
For the second straight year, NC State was the most improved ACC program in the Directors’ Cup standings, moving up 30 spots from last year and 22 the year before. In Lee Fowler’s last season as AD, NC State ranked 89th in the standings. In Debbie Yow’s 2 years as AD, State has moved up 52 spots.
ACC Schools On The Decline
North Carolina fell 2 spots in the rankings from last year, Clemson fell 7 spots, Miami and Virginia both fell 8 spots, Maryland fell 10 spots, Duke fell 11 spots, Georgia Tech fell 13 spots and Wake Forest had the biggest decline in the conference, falling 18 spots in the rankings.
There has been a lot of discussion about the decline of the ACC and here two-thirds of the conference finished worse in the Directors’ Cup standings compared to last year.
In an interesting point, Wake Forest’s AD Ron Wellman has always seemed to be highly regarded and well respected for the work he has done in Winston-Salem. However, Wake Forest has fallen all the way to 92nd after being as high as 23rd back in 2007 and has fallen off 16, 21 and 18 spots in each of the last 3 years.
Various BCS Conference Stats
Top five BCS schools:
1. Stanford
2. Florida
3. UCLA
4. Ohio St
5. Florida St
Bottom five BCS schools:
88. Cincinnati
92. Wake Forest
106. Washington St
111. Rutgers
131. Pitt
The top team in each conference were:
ACC: Florida St, 5th
Big 12: Texas, 6th
Big East: Louisville, 32th
Big Ten: Ohio St, 4th
Pac-12: Stanford, 1st
SEC: Florida, 2nd
The worst team in each conference were:
ACC: Wake Forest, 92nd
Big 12: Texas Tech, 71nd
Big East: Pitt, 131st
Big Ten: Iowa, 48th
Pac-12: Washington St, 106th
SEC: Mississippi St, 80th
Average ranking for each conference:
Big Ten: 28.8
SEC: 34.2
Pac-12: 35.8
Big 12: 38.0
ACC: 40.0
Big East: 74.3
In another sign of the decline of the ACC, the conference is only above the Big East in average ranking. And the two schools from the Big East that will be joining the ACC, Pitt and Syracuse, ranked 50th and 131st, which would bring the ACC’s average down even further to 47.2.
Most Improved BCS Schools:
Cincinnati: +62
Rutgers: +47
NC State: +30
Washington St: +29
Kansas: +16
Of the 5 most improved schools, NC State was the only to rank among the top 50.
BCS Schools With Biggest Decline:
Texas Tech: -23
Wake Forest: -18
UConn: -17
Georgia Tech: -13
Ole Miss: -12
Another sign of the downslide of the ACC, 2 of the top 5 declines were ACC schools, Wake Forest and Georgia Tech.
Conclusions
There are 2 major points to take away from the 2012 Directors’ Cup standings. The first, NC State continues to make major strides and improvements under Debbie Yow including moving up 52 spots in the Directors’ Cup ranking in 2 years.
The other point is that the perceived decline of the ACC is shown in the standings. Two-thirds of the conference fell in the rankings and went from having 4 top 10 schools a year ago to only 2 this year. Two of the biggest falls among BCS schools in the rankings were ACC schools. The average rank of the ACC ranked only ahead of the Big East. Wake Forest is one of the 4 worst BCS schools and future ACC school Pitt is the absolute worst BCS school (although as a West Virginia fan that warms my heart). And you have to wonder if Maryland’s ranking will fall off after they drop 7 sports.
So as an NC State fan there is much to be happy about (while also aware there is still much work to be done.) But as a member of the ACC in this crazy time of conference expansion, bowl tie-ins and TV contracts, maybe there should be some concern about the ACC.
