Introducing The Delaney Cup

Every spring, Stanford is awarded the NACDA Director's Cup. Texas has actually won a couple times in the last few years, and North Carolina won the very first one in 1994, but Stanford has won the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics' attempt at making an all-sports trophy the other 26 times. Michigan's 22 top tens are the best for a Big Ten school, followed by Ohio State at 15 and Penn State at 12. (I would be remiss not to mention that USC and UCLA are also top 10 fixtures.)

The idea of an all sports championship is interesting, but I don't think it's very fun on a national level. College athletics is regional. I care about how Michigan does in all sports at the Big Ten level.

The Delaney Cup, named for 30-year Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delaney, is my attempt to create an all-sports championship for the Big Ten. The scoring system is simple though verbose, and rewards teams for fielding more sports but makes it possible for a school who is quite good at a few sports to have a real impact.

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The Scoring System

The Delaney Cup awards points for the final regular season Big Ten standings, performance in the Big Ten Tournament, performance in the NCAA Tournament, and individual championships at both the conference and national level. I put a TL;DR at the bottom of this section. Let's dig in:

Big Ten Standings

In sports that maintain regular season standings, the points system goes as follows:

• 1st place: 20 points
• 2nd place: 16 points
• 3rd place: 14 points
• 4th place 12 points

And so on, subtracting two points per standings place until you get to 2 points for 9th place. There are no points awarded for coming in 10th or worse. Ties are NOT broken like they are for seeding, if two teams tie for second they both get 16 points, but the team that came in fourth still gets 12. (The Big Ten West made it so five teams were tied for the 8th best record in football in 2023. They all get their points.)

In sports with no regular season standings (mostly sports that are races: track, cross country, rowing, swimming, but also golf), we use the Big Ten Championship standings to award standings points.

Schools get to count their top 3 men's sports, their top 3 women's sports, and also one wild-card. That is, you get to count either your fourth-best men's sport or fourth-best women's sport, whichever is better.

This system obviously favors teams that compete in more sports, especially in sports with fewer than 9 Big Ten programs. Them's the breaks. If you have more sports you're more likely to win.

Big Ten Tournament

You get six points for winning a Big Ten Tournament, no matter what size the tournament is. You get 3 points for coming in second in a Big Ten Tournament. That means that the "every team gets in" basketball tournaments have the same bonus as the Big Ten Football Championship.

There is a cap of 30 points gained this way. Why? Honestly it's because otherwise Michigan would have truly run away with the 2023 trophy (spoilers), and I was trying to control bias. I imagine I'll fine-tune this part of the system. That said, you count until you hit the 30 point cap, there is no limit on the number of men's tourney bonuses or women's tourney bonuses you can count.

In sports where the championship event is used to award regular season points, no tournament points are awarded.

NCAA Tournament

You get 10 points for winning a national championship. In bracketed sports, making the Final Four or its equivalent awards 5 points. These points are not cumulative, you can earn either the natty bonus or the final four bonus, not both. "Or its equivalent" is something of a fuzzy category, there's some playing by ear here.

For example, if you make the basketball Final Four, that's five points, great. If you make the women's gymnastics final four, you've actually made the final, not the semi-final like in basketball. Still, five points. However, six teams make the finals in men's gymnastics. That is worth, you guessed it, five points. It hasn't come up yet and might not for a while, but I think the College World Series, which both admit 8, will also be worth five points.

In non-bracketed sports (which have a pretty solid crossover with the "no regular season standings" Big Ten sports), winning the national championship is still worth 10. Finishing in the top 3 is worth 5, and finishing 4-8 is worth 2.

There are no limits on NCAA Tournament bonuses.

Individual Championships

Winning a Big Ten Individual championship is worth one point. These are capped at 15 points. Winning a National Individual Championship (or something like doubles tennis, which is technically not individual but you get why its in this category) is worth 2 points. These are capped at 12.

This creates the area of imbalance in the Cup that I am most interested in fixing: if you're really good at track you can hit your max by the end of the indoor track season, before outdoor track is even played. Michigan basically swept the women's gymnastics individual bonus points last year, but they don't break ties, so there were disciplines that Michigan counted multiple individual championships and another school got at least one.

Non-Big Ten Sports

A handful of schools in the Big Ten play sports that the Big Ten does not sponsor but the NCAA does. Women's hockey for Wisconsin, Penn State, Minnesota, and Ohio State is the big one. Michigan and a couple others play water polo. Penn State does fencing. Nebraska does beach volleyball. (No really Nebraska does beach volleyball, look it up.)

For sports that are not sponsored by the Big Ten but are by the NCAA, you still get your standard NCAA Tourney bonuses, should you win a national championship (10) or make a final/frozen four (5), or finish 4-8 in a non-bracket sport (2). This was designed as a "you get extra credit for women's hockey" clause (your author wrote this line while glaring at Warde Manuel and Santa Ono). If the NCAA does not sponsor the sport, it does not count. I know some schools consider things like Rugby "varsity", my undergrad alma mater (Albion College) has varsity e-sports, but I'm only keeping track of NCAA sports.

You do not get any conference performance bonuses of any type for non-Big Ten sports. If Michigan wins the water polo conference championship, that's not a Big Ten championship, doesn't count.

TL;DR

• Big Ten Regular Season Standings: 20 points for 1st, 16 for 2nd, 14 for 3rd, 12 for 4th, etc. until you get to 2 points for 9th. Count your top 3 men's, top 3 women's, and one wild card from either gender. In sports with no regular season standings, use the Big Ten Championship standings.
• Big Ten Tournament Bonus: 6 points for winning a tourney, 3 for the runner-up. Capped at 30 total points, but no controls for how many sports you can count.
• NCAA Tourney Bonus: 10 points for a national championship. In bracketed sports, 5 points for making the Final Four or equivalent. In non-bracketed sports, 5 points for finishing 2 or 3, 2 points for finishing 5-8.
• Big Ten Individual Championships: 1 point each, capped at 15.
• NCAA Individual Championships: 2 points each, capped at 12.
• Non-Big Ten Sports: If the NCAA sponsors a sport but the Big Ten does not, it is eligible for all NCAA Tourney/Individual Champ bonuses. It is not eligible for conference tourney bonuses.

The 2022-23 Delaney Cup

To see how this works in practice, let's look at last year's standings with a detailed breakdown for the top 3. If you want to look at my whole chart be my guest.

I mean you didn't expect anyone else in 14th did you?

Congratulations to Northwestern for winning a national championship in women's lacrosse. Still couldn't crack the top 3 but pretty cool imo. Purdue gets the 5 points for being the Big Ten West Champion and therefore being the football "tournament runner up", but OSU gets the 2nd place regular season points based on the actual standings, as you'll see below.

Wisconsin also grabbed 10 points for winning the W Hockey natty. MSU's standings points are actually quite respectable as they won three women's Big Ten Regular season championships, getting a full 60 points from their counted women's teams. Unfortunately, they barely did a damn thing in either the B1G or NCAA Tourneys.

Let's dig into the top 3:

3) Ohio State- 174 points

Men's Sports Counted: Football (2nd, lol), Soccer (2nd), Tennis (1st)

Women's Sports Counted: Tennis (2nd), Indoor Track (2nd), Women's Swim/Dive (1st)

Wild Card: M Swim/Dive or W Outdoor Track (2nd)

Standings Points: 120

Big Ten Tourney Bonuses: 12. M Tennis Champs, WBB runner-up, W Tennis runner-up

NCAA Tourney Bonuses: 21. College Football Playoffs, M Tennis final four, Wrestling 4-8, W Swimming 4-8, W Hockey Frozen Four (non-B1G), Fencing 4-8 (non-B1G)

Big Ten Individual Bonuses: 24, capped at 15 points

NCAA Individual Bonuses: 3, so 6 points

A couple Big Ten regular season championships, a ton of 2nd place sports, some solid Big Ten Tourney bonuses, and then a ton of NCAA Tourney bonuses. OSU also hit their B1G Individual points max. I had just sort of assumed OSU would turn out to be in second place buuuuut

2) Penn State- 179 points

Men's Sports Counted: Lacrosse (1st), Wrestling (1st), Football (3rd)

Women's Sports Counted: Field Hockey (1st), Lacrosse (4th), Volleyball or Outdoor Track (5th)

Wild Card: M Gymnastics (4th)

Standings Points: 108

Big Ten Tourney Bonus: 18. M Gymnastics runner-up, Wrestling champs, W Soccer champs, M basketball runner-up (remember that?)

NCAA Tourney Bonus: 32. M Gym finals, M Lax final four, Wrestling champs, Field Hockey final four, M Volleyball final four (non-B1G), Fencing 4-8 (non-B1G)

Big Ten Individual Bonuses: 9

NCAA Individual Bonuses: 7, capped at 12 points

Penn State edges OSU through an excellent performance in national tournaments. Those 32 bonus points are by far the highest for any school in that category. Hey, winning a national championship should be a big deal and it is. Penn State gets a nice little bonus for two non-B1G sports.

1) Michigan- 210 points

Men's Sports Counted: Football (1st), Gymnastics (1st), Hockey or Tennis or XC (2nd)

Women's Sports Counted: Gymnastics (1st), Tennis (1st), Indoor Track (1st)

Wild Card: W Outdoor Track (1st) (obviously interchangeable with any of the counted women's sports)

Big Ten Tourney Bonus: 45, capped at 30. Football champs, M Gym champs, Hockey champs, M Lax champs, M tennis runner-up, W Gym champs, Field Hockey champs, W tennis champs

NCAA Tourney Bonus: 17. College Football Playoff, Men's Gym finals, M Hockey frozen four, Wrestling 4-8.

Big Ten Individual Bonus: 25, capped at 15.

NCAA Individual Bonus: 7, capped at 12 points.

Hey! Michigan won! Who could possibly have seen this coming? In the seven sports Michigan counted, they got to count 6 championships and one second place. Pretty damn good. The "30 point cap on B1G Tourney Bonuses" was put in place when I realized that Michigan got 45 points for B1G Tournaments and no other team eclipsed 18. A solid but not spectacular NCAA Tourney bonus and Michigan had more than enough breathing room to lap the field last year.

2023-24 Standings

We're through one third of the college sports calendar, and while we won't get useful standings until the end of the winter season, the 2023-24 standings at least exist. They'll be updated as any sport ends it's national season, and when I get around to it I'll put a permalink to this table in the header at allblue dot fans. Here's where we are so far:

Penn State's advantage right now comes from being the only school that has come in the top 9 in the requisite 7 sport during the fall season. Wisconsin and Nebraska get their volleyball final four points, Northwestern gets the same for field hockey. Even though I said I'd update when sports end nationally, football is already in there, including Michigan's CFP 5 points. Hopefully they can get all 10.