FanPost

UCLA Athletics- Capitol One Cup- 4/28 Standings- Women #4, Men #33

Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports

As forecast in the interview last week with Rece Davis, the Capitol One Cup released their most recent standings today. As discussed in our most recent update on the Directors' Cup, there are significant differences in the scoring systems for these two competing measures of overall athletics performance.

I happen to like the Capitol One Cup better, because it rewards success rather than participation. This is how most fans would look at the sports program in a given year. National championships should count for something. Doughnut prefers the Directors' Cup to earn his bonus, because any well-rounded program fielding lots of teams in the postseason (whether they win or not) will get in the top 10% (and trigger his bonus).

The first distinction which the Capitol One Cup makes is to split sports into "major" (Group B) and "minor" (Group A) groups. Major is more than the revenue sports. It is basically all sports where there is broad exposure and broad participation (like football and basketball, but also baseball, softball, and soccer, for example). The second distinction is that only the top 10 teams in each sport earn points. A third distinction is that you get almost twice as many points for winning as for finishing 2nd.

The Capitol One Cup does separate standings (and separate trophies and scholarship rewards) for men's sports and women's sports. The Directors' Cup (again, Doughnut's preferred metric) does a single combined ranking.

To see how this all works in practice, UConn is #1 in women's sports in the Capitol One Cup (thanks mostly to their basketball championship) and is #2 in men's sports in the Capitol One Cup (thanks again mostly to their basketball championship). Who would not want to have their school win both basketball titles? But according to the Directors' Cup, UConn is having a terrible year, and is currently ranked 37th.

So, again, the Capitol One Cup makes a lot more sense, which is probably why Doughnut chose the Directors' Cup.

In the Capitol One Cup, UCLA is currently in 4th place for women's sports, with 62 points. The Bruins are 10 points behind 3rd place Penn State, 13 points behind 2nd place Stanford, and 20 points behind 1st place UConn, but 16 comfortable points ahead of 5th place Wisconsin. Of the 62 UCLA points, 60 are for winning the women's soccer tourney (again- winning means something). The other 2 points come from the 9th place finish in the "minor" sport of gymnastics. This is clearly a solid standing, thanks to the soccer title.

On the men's side, UCLA is currently in 33rd place, with 17 points. We are just barely behind such athletic powerhouses as New Hampshire and Union. The Bruins received -0- points for football or basketball (remember, top 10 only). Nine of the 17 points come from UCLA's 8th place finish in the final postseason "major" sport soccer poll. The other eight points come from UCLA's 4th place finish in the final "minor" sport water polo postseason poll. In terms of our conference compatriots, Cal is tied for #7, Oregon is #15, Arizona is tied for #19, Colorado is tied for #23, Stanford and $C are tied for #26, and Washington is tied for #23. Beating number 8 in the conference doesn't seem to be all that wonderful, given our recruiting advantages. But none of this affects Doughnut, as he stands ready to cash his check from the Directors' Cup standings.

Hats off to Capitol One for giving their support to collegiate athletics across the board, with the Cup and the scholarship awards that go with it. Last year, the Bruins won the Men's Cup and the scholarship money that went with it (thank you, baseball). This year, it looks like a super long shot on the Men's side, while the women are poised for a deep run.

Go Bruins !!

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.

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