The Learfield Directors’ Cup final standings were recently released. The results were not great for Rutgers. And I will be among those who will agree that nj.com didn’t hesitate to hammer RU in their reporting of the results.
The Directors’ Cup is given out by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) and measures the success of college athletics departments based on a point system in NCAA championship events (and bowl games) for all sports — during the 2025-26 season.
It attempts to be an objective measure of how successful a program is on the field/court/mat/sand. Or bowling alley. The final standings can be found here.
Rutgers has never done exceptionally well in these standings. Rutgers’ best finish ever in the NACDA Directors’ Cup was 48th overall, which they achieved at the conclusion of the 2021-22 academic year. This year, the Scarlet Knights finished 93rd in the standings for the award. For the record, the scoring system used by NACDA is here.
During that 2021-22 season, Rutgers had nine teams appear in the national rankings, the most programs ranked during the same season in program history. The Scarlet Knights had five teams compete in Big Ten Championship games, including women’s soccer which captured the school’s first-ever regular season conference title and field hockey which earned the first Big Ten Tournament Championship in school history. You win, do well in post-season play, you get points for this award. When you don’t, 2025-26 happens.
Rutgers finished last among Big Ten schools for the fourth consecutive year, landing 22 spots behind the second-worst Big Ten school (Maryland, 71st) and 31 spots behind the third-worst school (Purdue, 62nd). Not terribly good.
Who finished ahead of Rutgers, besides the entire Big Ten? Well, the ten schools immediately ahead of RU were: 92 – Hawaii, 91- Cincinnatii, 90- Georgia Tech, tied at 88- High Point & Houston, 87- Liberty, 86- Tarleton State, 85- Utah State, 84- Pitt, 83- Boston College. Personally, I can live with Tech, Pitt, and even BC ahead of us, but Tarleton State?
Fall shutout is a bad start
The fall results were a low point, as Rutgers earned no points for play in men’s or women’s cross country, field hockey, football, men’s or women’s soccer, or volleyball; Rutgers doesn’t compete in water polo, the last fall sport.
Rutgers finally got on the board with its winter sports, but was still at the bottom of the Big Ten. At that point, Rutgers trailed 17th ranked Maryland by 100 points. Rutgers earned points for women’s gymnastics, women’s swimming, and men’s wrestling. Not that every school has them, but Rutgers can’t score in a number of winter sports, some of which it used to have. The other winter spots are men’s swimming, men’s and women’s fencing, men’s gymnastics, men’s and women’s ice hockey, men’s and women’s track & field, women’s wrestling, women’s bowling, rifle, and skiing.
There are 14 sports in the spring that count towards the Directors’ Cup standings; Rutgers scored points in only two. Women’s Lacrosse and rowing were the sports that earned points for RU while the rest came up empty. That means that baseball, women’s golf, men’s golf, men’s and women’s lacrosse, softball, women’s tennis, and both track & field programs were shutout. Rutgers doesn’t compete in men’s volleyball, women’s water polo, beach volleyball, or men’s tennis, each of which are counted in the standings.
The final total? Rutgers cometes in seven of the eight fall sports and scored zero points. It got 117.50 points while competing in just seven of the 17 winter sports, and finished the year scoring 110 points competing in 10 spring sports. A bad start and not a lot of success as the year progressed.
Compare that to the highest ranked Big Ten team, UCLA. The Bruins don’t play men’s or women’s lacrosse, so that’s two of the 14 spring sports in which they can’t score. The other 12? They earned points in every one. That’s how you get recognition. Another example: at the end of the fall, Wisconsin was the highest scoring Big Ten school; they don’t play field hockey and they didn’t score in women’s soccer. Those were the only fall sports in which they didn’t score points.
Rutgers has more sports than most Big Ten schools; more than a lot of schools, period. But the success of those teams has been very limited. As an overall program, Keli Zinn has a lot of work to do.
