Empower the Athlete has recently posted the latest NACDA Directors’ Cup Rankings. NACDA stands for National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics, and once a year these athletic directors get together and rank NCAA colleges and universities by success in collegiate athletics. Points for the Directors’ Cup are based on order of finish in different NCAA championships or media-based polls. Essentially, these rankings reflect which schools have the best overall athletic departments.
ETA States:
College’s and their lacrosse teams are constantly ranked by many different authorities. USNews, Forbes, and Princeton Review do the most notorious rankings of colleges and universities based on their academic prowess. Lacrosse teams are ranked before, during and after the season by the USILA Coaches’ Poll, Inside Lacrosse, and the Nike/STX Media Poll.
The NACDA has recently released the most recent rankings and a lot of schools with men’s and women’s lacrosse programs were in the top 50.
Here are a few of the D1 schools with lacrosse programs in the top 50 by the order of their ranking.
1. Stanford (only a D1 women’s program)
2. North Carolina
3. Ohio State
4. Penn State
7. Maryland
9. Duke
10. Virginia