For UK, there’s good and bad in the 2022-23 Directors’ Cup standings

For the University of Kentucky, the final standings in the 2022-23 Learfield Directors’ Cup standings produced a mixed verdict.

On the positive side, UK finished 18th in the annual measurement of overall athletics department strength. It is the sixth-straight year that Kentucky has finished in the Top 20 in the Directors’ Cup.

“That’s a point of pride for our program,” UK Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart said earlier this month of the prospect of a sixth-straight top 20 finish in the Directors Cup. “That’s something that speaks to the quality of our coaches and the efforts of our young people.”

In the Directors’ Cup, points are awarded in each NCAA-sanctioned sport based on how schools fare across the board in NCAA Tournament competition as well as in football bowls and playoff games. Universities can earn Directors’ Cup points in up to 20 sports.

Stanford finished first in the Directors’ Cup standings for the 26th time in 2022-23, with soon-to-be Southeastern Conference member Texas second.

On the negative side for Kentucky, this season’s Directors’ Cup finish of 18th is the worst for UK since the Wildcats came in 26th in 2015-16.

It was a fairly substantial drop off from last school year, when Kentucky finished an all-time best of ninth in the Directors’ Cup.

In the five completed, most-recent Directors’ Cup competitions prior to 2022-23, UK had finished 10th, 17th, 14th, 12th and ninth.

“We had some folks miss (the NCAA post-season tourneys),” Barnhart said. “We need folks to make deeper runs.”

Kentucky’s standing in the 2022-23 Directors’ Cup was damaged by the fact that six Wildcats sports programs — women’s cross country, men’s cross country, women’s soccer, women’s basketball, men’s golf and women’s tennis — scored no Directors’ Cup points because they failed to qualify for post-season NCAA tourney competition.

Since the end of their seasons, Kentucky has changed head coaches in men’s golf and women’s tennis. UK has hired former Vanderbilt assistant Gator Todd to lead its men’s golf program and ex-James Madison head coach Shelley Jaudon to lead women’s tennis.

Rifle (85 Directors’ Cup points), women’s outdoor track and field (73.5 points), men’s tennis (73), women’s gymnastics (71.3) and baseball (64) were the top scorers among UK’s programs.

On the plus side for Kentucky, UK finished ahead of Louisville (32nd) in the Directors’ Cup standings for the 11th-straight time. Since Barnhart has been Kentucky AD, UK has finished ahead of U of L in the Directors’ Cup 16 times in 20 completed athletics years. The last time Louisville finished ahead of Kentucky was 2010-11, when the Cardinals came in 34th and the Wildcats 36th.

On the debit side for UK, Kentucky finished seventh among SEC schools, behind Florida (No. 5), Tennessee (No. 6), Georgia (No. 7), LSU (No. 9), Alabama (No. 12) and Arkansas (No. 13).

That was a substantial drop for UK, which was third among SEC schools, behind only Florida (5th) and Arkansas (No. 7), in 2021-22.

Until 2022-23, Kentucky had finished ahead of Tennessee in the Directors’ Cup 10-straight times. Before this year, the previous time UT finished ahead of UK in the Directors’ Cup standings was 2010-11, when Tennessee was 22nd and Kentucky 36th.

Among SEC schools that finished outside the top 20 this year, Texas A&M was 24th, South Carolina 33rd, Auburn 36th, Mississippi 39th, Missouri 50th, Vanderbilt 56th and Mississippi State 57th.

Besides Texas in second, future SEC member Oklahoma finished 23rd.

The standings for Kentucky schools other than UK and U of L saw Western Kentucky finish 171st, Northern Kentucky 223rd, Murray State 242nd, Eastern Kentucky 248th and Morehead State 297th.

Looking ahead, Barnhart says the goal for University of Kentucky Athletics in 2023-24 is to get more teams into NCAA post-season competition and move back closer to the top in the Directors’ Cup standings.

“We want to be ... inside the top 10 and pressing for the top five,” Barnhart said.