Capital One Cup Winter Standings Show A Tight Race Heading Into Spring Season
The race for the No. 1 spot in the Capital One Cup standings and a combined $400,000 in student-athlete scholarships is gaining momentum and the leading schools have clearly emerged after a thrilling winter sports season.
Today, Capital One Financial Corporation (NYSE: COF), an official NCAA® Corporate Champion, has announced the official winter standings for the Capital One Cup, which is awarded each year to the best men’s and women’s NCAA Division I athletics programs in the country.
Several schools, including Florida State, Connecticut and Notre Dame, hold top-10 positions for both men’s and women’s standings, which makes each school a legitimate contender for a sweep of the men’s and women’s Capital One Cup trophies when the competition concludes after the spring athletics season.
The exciting conclusions to both the NCAA® Men’s and Women’s Basketball National Championship encapsulated a wild and crazy March Madness® filled with incredible upsets and poignant moments. For the second time in 10 years, the Connecticut Huskies won both the men’s and women’s basketball championships, catapulting the school’s athletics programs high into Capital One Cup men’s and women’s standings.
On the strength of its BCS National Championship, and a top-10 finish in indoor track & field this winter, Florida State now leads the men’s standings. Connecticut ranks second after its NCAA Men’s Basketball National Championship, while Notre Dame ranks third, boosted by a NCAA Men’s College Cup® title in the fall and a top-10 finish at the NCAA Fencing National Championship this winter.
On the women’s side, Connecticut rose to the top of the standings after winning the NCAA Women’s Basketball National Championship and securing a Field Hockey championship title, overtaking Penn State, which led after the fall standings.
The official Capital One Cup standings after the 2013-2014 winter athletics season, with the top-10 point earners (including ties) in men’s and women’s athletics listed. The complete standings can be found at:
www.CapitalOneCup.com or Facebook.com/CapitalOneCup.
“This is what college athletics is all about -- the unpredictability of NCAA championships and teams playing at a high level, as evidenced by the Connecticut men’s basketball team becoming the first ever No. 7 seed to win the NCAA Tournament,” said Capital One Cup Advisory Board member and CBS college basketball analyst, Clark Kellogg.
“Florida State and Notre Dame have held steady in the men’s standings while Connecticut could take it all on both the men’s and women’s side. What makes the Capital One Cup race so thrilling is how multiple sports across multiple seasons contribute to the ultimate winning program.”
“Connecticut’s historic win over Notre Dame is an example of a team that kept dominating throughout the season and didn’t let up for a second during the tournament,” said Capital One Cup Advisory Board member and former basketball star at USC, Lisa Leslie. “For Connecticut to achieve perfection and show the poise to overcome an undefeated and highly skilled Notre Dame team in the title game was special. With the heart and determination already shown by women’s athletics programs this season, I’m excited to follow the remaining NCAA championships and the race for the Capital One Cup.” “This is always an exciting time as every game and match takes on even greater importance as we head toward the end of the college sports season,” said Marc Mentry, Senior Vice President at Capital One. “We are anticipating a competitive and action-packed spring sports season, which will determine who will reign supreme in the race for the Capital One Cup.”
Highlights from the winter season include: • The Connecticut men’s and women’s basketball programs took home national championships in the same year for the second time in school history. • Union (NY) men’s hockey delivered a first ever national championship to the school in any sport, defeating powerhouses Boston College and Minnesota on the way to the title. • The Golden Knights of Clarkson won the school’s first NCAA title with a 5-4 victory over Minnesota in women’s hockey. • Denver delivered another skiing championship, the 22nd in school history. • Georgia edged out Stanford for its second consecutive women’s swimming title. • Penn State continued to dominate men’s collegiate wrestling with its fourth consecutive national title and continued to climb the Capital One Cup standings with a record 13thnational championship in fencing. • West Virginia went back-to-back, winning its second national rifle championship in as many years. • Sam Houston State won their first ever national championship in any sport when the women’s bowling team took home the title.
Schools earn points based on their teams’ top 10 finishes in NCAA Division I championships and in final official coaches’ polls across 20 women’s and 19 men’s sports as they compete to win the Capital One Cup trophy and a combined $400,000 in scholarships for student-athletes. The Capital One Cup winners will be determined at the end of the spring season and will be honored at the ESPY Awards in July. Last year, new winners emerged when UCLA won on the men’s side and North Carolina claimed the women’s Capital One Cup. Stanford women and Florida men earned the Capital One Cup the first two years of the program. This is the fourth year of the Capital One Cup.
Please visit www.CapitalOneCup.com, Facebook.com/CapitalOneCup andTwitter.com/CapitalOneCup for more information and news on the Capital One Cup as well as updates on the standings. ________________________________________
