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According to the Director’s Cup standings, BYU had the 30th best athletic program in the Nation during the 2015-16 academic year.
The Director’s Cup is annually awarded to the best athletic program in the country. It measures program’s performance by taking a look at the overall achievements of the athletes at each university. The 10 best men’s and 10 best women’s teams count toward the final score.
The Cougars had 9 women’s teams finish high enough to score points in the Director’s Cup, while the men’s teams produced 6 scoring teams. BYU’s scoring teams this year were Women’s Basketball, Gymnastics, Women’s Golf, Softball, Women’s Track and Field, Women’s Indoor Track, Women’s Cross Country, Women’s Soccer, Women’s Volleyball, Men’s Track and Field, Men’s Volleyball, Men’s Swimming, Men’s Indoor Track, Men’s Cross Country, and Football.
The Cougars’ 30th place finish is its highest since the 2006-07 year when they finished 26th. The highest BYU has ever placed in the Director’s Cup is 12th in 1998-99.
The achievements of the 2015-16 season puts BYU as the 1st place team in the West Coast Conference. Among all programs outside of major conferences, BYU ranks 1st. BYU trails only Oklahoma State and Oklahoma of the teams in the Big 12. The Cougars also finished 21 spots higher than the 51st place finish by the University of Utah.
There are 65 teams in the Power 5 conferences. The Cougars finished higher than 36 of them. (Utah was better than only 16. The Utes were 49th of 65.) As a point of interest, Pittsburgh finished lowest of any Power 5 team at 110th place.
Stanford University won its 22nd straight Director’s Cup.