University of North Carolina Athletics
Tar Heels 9th in Final Directors Cup Standings
June 28, 2005 | General
June 28, 2005
The University of North Carolina finished ninth in the Sports Academy Directors Cup, an annual ranking that measures how Division I programs perform in NCAA postseason competition. This is the fourth consecutive year and 10th time in the 12-year history of the Directors Cup the Tar Heels have placed in the Top 10 nationally.
Carolina accumulated 940.5 points, beating the University of Southern California for ninth place by 38.25 points. Stanford was first for the 10th consecutive year (UNC won the inaugural award in 1993-94) with 1238.75 points. The Cardinal (Pac-10) was followed by Texas (Big 12), UCLA (Pac-10), Michigan (Big Ten), Duke (ACC), Florida, (SEC), Georgia (SEC) and Tennessee (SEC).
This was only the second time in 11 years that Carolina was second among ACC schools. Virginia (13th) joined the Blue Devils and Tar Heels as the only ACC schools among the Top 25 finishers.
"Credit always goes to our student-athletes and coaches," says Director of Athletics Dick Baddour. "We are proud anytime we finish among the top schools in the country and to place in the Top 10 for the fourth year in a row is a remarkable achievement. It's a challenge to maintain a high level of success when we field as many sports as we do, so to finish this high again shows how special our student-athletes and coaches are and how much effort they put in to represent our university."
Carolina student-athletes also performed well academically, earning the highest fall and spring semester grade point averages in six years. The cumulative GPA for the fall was 2.871 and the spring was 2.953. Those marks included 315 student-athletes who earned a 3.0 or better in the fall and 318 with a 3.0 or better in the spring.
There were 298 UNC student-athletes on the ACC Honor Roll this year, the highest figure in school history, and 175 made the Dean's List in the fall semester. Another 163 student-athletes made the Dean's List in the spring.
Eight programs had team GPAs in excess of 3.0 in both the fall and spring semesters, including women's fencing, field hockey, women's golf, gymnastics, rowing, men's tennis, women's tennis and volleyball.
Five student-athletes earned a 4.0 GPA in both semesters -Heather Kendell (field hockey), Chris Litchford (men's soccer), Leigh Blomgren (women's soccer), Julia Bove (softball) and Lindsey Keiter (fencing).
Carolina was one of 25 Division I-A football programs in the country to graduate at least 70 percent of its players from the 1999-2000 entering class. Duke and Wake Forest were the other current ACC schools to graduate at least 70 percent from that class (Boston College, which joins the league on July 1, also was one of the 25 to accomplish this).
"These exceptional academic benchmarks demonstrate that Carolina student-athletes understand academics comes first, and our goal is to be outstanding in all areas," says Baddour. "Compliments to our coaches for recruiting true student-athletes, to our students-athletes for putting in the time and hard work to succeed, and to our staff for assisting them in reaching their goals both academically and athletically."
Carolina's NACDA Cup Finishes: 2004-05: 9th; 2003-04: 7th; 2002-03: 8th; 2001-02: 4th; 2000-01: 15th; 1999-2000: 5th; 1998-99: Tied 17th; 1997-98: Tied 2nd; 1996-97: 2nd; 1995-96: 6th; 1994-95: 2nd; 1993-94: 1st
