Photo by: Darren Miller
Tulsa is Top American Athletic Conference School in Final Learfield Directors’ Cup Standings
6/29/2017 1:50:00 PM | Tulsa Hurricane
CLEVELAND, Ohio –– The University of Tulsa finished out the year as the top-rated American Athletic Conference school in the final 2016-17 Division I Learfield Directors' Cup Standings, it was announced today. Tulsa completed the 2016-17 athletic year ranked 68th nationally, while the next best conference performance was Houston in 84th place.
Tulsa has the smallest enrollment of all American Athletic Conference schools and is also the smallest FBS school in the nation. It's the 10th consecutive season that Tulsa has earned a top-100 ranking and the 19th time in the 24 years since the Learfield Cup Standings has been in existence.
In three years as an American Athletic Conference member, Tulsa has been among the top-4 performers in the Learfield Cup Standings each season.
Tulsa accumulated 334.0 total points this year with seven sports earning points, including men's cross-country, football, men's soccer, softball, women's tennis, and men's indoor and outdoor track & field all amassing points.
The Stanford Cardinal of the Pac-12 finished the year as the No. 1-ranked team in the country.
The Golden Hurricane cross-country team led by All-American Luke Traynor placed 11th at the NCAA Championships in late November. It was Tulsa's sixth consecutive NCAA Championship appearance after winning its seventh straight conference championship, including a third consecutive American Athletic Conference title.
Tulsa's football team had the school's 10th double-digit winning season in 2016 with a 10-3 mark, while finishing in second-place in the American Athletic Conference West Division. The Hurricane completed the season with a 55-10 victory in the Miami Beach Bowl over Central Michigan, while also making NCAA history in becoming the first school in a single season with a 3,000-yard passer (Dane Evans), two 1,000-yard rushers (James Flanders and D'Angelo Brewer) and two 1,000-yard receivers (Josh Atkinson and Keevan Lucas).
It was "three times a charm" for the Tulsa men's soccer team, just like the cross-country team, as the Hurricane captured its third straight American Athletic Conference postseason soccer title. Tulsa finished the season with a 10-5-5 overall record, while making the school's 11th appearance in the NCAA Tournament, and eighth time in the last 10 years.
The Tulsa softball team captured both the regular season and postseason conference championship and was a half-inning away against eventual champion Oklahoma from reaching the College Softball Super Regionals. The Hurricane finished the season with an overall 41-17 mark and 15-3 league record.
Senior All-America distance runner Marc Scott scored nearly all of Tulsa's points in the sports of indoor and outdoor track and field as the Hurricane placed 13th at the NCAA Indoor meet and 15th at the Outdoor Championship. Scott was the 10,000-meter National Champion during the outdoor season.
The women's tennis team made its 11th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and finished the season with an overall 20-8 record and a No. 26 final national ranking by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA).
The Learfield Sports Director's Cup is a program that honors institutions maintaining a broad-based program, achieving success in many sports, both men's and women's. The program began in 1993-94 for Division I by NACDA and USA Today. Each institution is awarded points in a pre-determined number of sports for men and women, and an overall champion, who records the highest number of points, is named when all NCAA competition is completed in the spring.
In NCAA Division I athletics, 20 sports are included in the ratings, the top 10 men's and top 10 women's sports.
In The American…
Rk School Points
68. Tulsa 334.00
84. Houston 241.75
85. Cincinnati 237.50
90. USF 221.00
92. UConn 216.00
97. UCF 209.25
108. SMU 178.50
142. Memphis 109.00
162. Temple 90.00
209. Tulane 57.50
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