University of North Carolina Athletics
Tar Heels Drop to Sixth in Sears Cup Standings
April 20, 2000 | General
April 20, 2000
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - The University of North Carolina has fallen to sixth place in the 1999-2000 Sears Directors' Cup standings which were released Thursday morning. The rankings released Thursday are the final winter sports rankings for the current school year. UNC is in the same spot that it was in at the end of the fall season when it was also sixth.
The Tar Heel athletic program had moved up to fifth in the rankings last Thursday but the most recent rankings added the final winter sport--women's gymnastics--and UCLA, which won the NCAA title, moved past Carolina into fifth place. In addition, UNC fell further behind the #1-#4 teams in the standings, all of whom scored a significant number of points in women's gymnastics. Wisconsin, which is one spot behind Carolina, did not score in the sport, but the #8-#12 teams in the standings all gained ground on Carolina as the spring sports season begins.
Stanford, which has won five straight Sears Directors' Cup titles from 1995-99 after UNC claimed the inaugural crown in 1994, is well on its way to yet another title. The Cardinal paces the field by almost 200 points with 970. Michigan is second with 775.5 points, followed by Nebraska with 754, Penn States with 753.5 and UCLA with 716. North Carolina heads the second five in the standings with 635.5 points, followed by Wisconsin with 625, BYU with 564, Florida with 554.5 and Arizona with 489.5.
The remainder of the Top 20 has Arizona State in 11th with 475.5, Minnesota in 12th with 465, Arkansas in 13th with 456, Texas in 14th with 449, Michigan State in 15th with 444, Ohio State in 16th with 430, LSU in 17th place with 428, Notre Dame in 18th place with 414, Georgia in 19th place with 411.5 and Connecticut in 20th place with 387.
