25-26 Director's Cup Thread

[DirectorsCupUpdates]

Chris Del Conte and the Texas Longhorn put a bow on the 24-25 athletic season during halftime of the Longhorns game against San Jose State by accepting a newly designed (and thankfully crystal once again) Director's Cup Trophy. This marked the 4th time the Longhorns have secured this award in the last 5 years.

It is now time to turn our attention fully to the 25-26 athletic season and that is what I hope to do in this thread. While Football puts the F in OTF, the Longhorns boast many successful programs on the 40 and we will highlight those here in this thread. Any sport that isn't covered in detail elsewhere on the forum will be covered here. I don't claim to be an expert in all 20 of these sports but will do my best to bring the news to the thread and add any flavor beyond that as I am able. If you have a good understanding of a sport discussed here, please feel free to add your input and become our local expert, it would be greatly appreciated.

I'll also use this thread to post Director's Cup scoring updates, predictions and other info related to the Cup. I hope you all enjoy following along through the year as Texas goes after their 5th Cup!

 

[DirectorsCupUpdates]

What is the Director's Cup?

The Director's Cup is an award presented to the collegiate athletic department that achieves the highest level of success across a variety of sports, both men's and women's, during the academic year. Points are awarded, from 5-100 points, based on each teams placement in the NCAA sponsored championship competition for each sport. Failure to be included in the NCAA sponsored championship competition equates to 0 points score. The champion in each sport is awarded 100 points and the points beyond that vary based on the size of the bracket or number of teams included in the competition. Each school can include points scored by 19 different teams, regardless of gender. 5 of the 19 teams included must be Volleyball, W Soccer, W Basketball, M Basketball and Baseball. After those 5 sports are included, the next highest 14 scores are used to determine the final score. 

History

The Director's Cup was started in the 93-94 season by USA Today and the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) and continues with these relationships today with the addition of Learfield as a corporate sponsor. In the inaugural season, The University of North Carolina won the cup while Stanford finished in 2nd place. Stanford would then go on to win the next 25 Director's Cup until Texas won their first during the 20-21 season. Texas would win a second cup during the 21-22 season with Stanford winning by a thin margin in 22-23. Texas has since gone back to back once again winning the Cup in 23-24 and 24-25.

The original scoring system differed from the one described above. For the first 25 years schools could include points from their top 10 men's sports and top 10 women's sports which would be added together to give the grand total score. This system made it very challenging for schools with smaller departments, including Texas, to outright win the cup. In 1993 Texas had 9 Men's sports and 8 Women's Sports. In the early 2000s sports like W Soccer, Rowing and Softball had been added on the Women's side but Texas still did not field 10 Men's teams. The scoring system was changed to the current system for the 2017-18 season and the move away from gender specific scoring, decreasing the number of sports from 20 to 19 and adding required sports has made the cup more competitive (at least slightly). Texas would have won only 1 Director's Cup under the old scoring system.

[horns96]

Thanks for posting here @DirectorsCupUpdates🤘

[DirectorsCupUpdates]

Fall Sports Recaps and Previews

The Fall sports season is well underway with competition officially starting about 1 month ago in women's soccer. The Texas Longhorns compete in 5 Fall sports - Football, W Soccer, Volleyball and M&W Cross Country. I'll use these next few posts to look back at the previous seasons for each sport, the outlook for this upcoming season and get caught up on results that have already occurred.  Football has plenty of coverage elsewhere and I will not touch on it here. So let's get started!

Womens Soccer

The Longhorns started competing in Women's Soccer in 1994 and over these 32 seasons the team has made 14 NCAA tournament appearances with a high water mark of the sweet 16 on 5 occassions. The team has won 2 regular season conference championships (2001 and 2022 - Big 12) and 4 conference tournaments championships (2006, 2007, 2023 - Big 12, 2024 SEC). The team has enjoyed a really strong stretch over the last 3 seasons and this should come as no surprise as the hands down best player in Texas Soccer history, Lexi Missimo, was on campus during this time. Along with the very talented Trinity Byars and strong defensive efforts from Emj Cox and Goalkeeper Mia Justus this team had a very strong core of athletes on both sides of the field. Unfortunately injuries to Byars to Cox last year limited this ceiling of this team and ultimately lead to a round of 32 exit in the NCAA tournament. 

The story of the 24-25 season will be written based on how the team can replace this experienced core of players. Emj Cox has recovered from her injury and has been back on the field this season but early results show she may not be as effective in her role as she was prior to the injury. Last year's injury to Trinity Byars opened a striker spot and super freshmen Amalia Villareal did a great job stepping in to fill the void. Amalia scored 9 goals and assisted on 8 others on her way to winning the SEC freshmen of the year. Through 7 games this season she leads the team with 3 goals and has contributed 2 assists as well. Her scoring counterpart thus far has been freshmen Ava McDonald who has also netted 3 goals this season. 

Having completed the non-conference slate at 2-4-1, this team has shown some apparent struggles in reloading their roster. Outside of Villarreal and McDonald's 6 goals, only 5 goals have been scored by 4 other players. The team has scored 11 total goals while surrendering 14. The defense has allowed opposing teams to create a lot of opportunities and our Freshmen Goalkeeper, Mateya Dessieux, has not been able to clean up enough of the mistakes. The teams 2 wins on the year have come against Long Beach State and the College of Charleston. 3 Losses have come against big 12 foes (TCU, Baylor, Houston) and the worst of the losses was against Northwestern State.

In summary, this team had a lot of holes to fill coming into the season and it does not seem like this squad has been able to do that successfully. Could a relatively young team continue to find improvement over the season? Yes, and that is the hope. The SEC conference is not incredibly strong in soccer but does have 6 teams in the top 25 with 2 others receiving votes. Texas started in the top 25 but would need to drastically improve results to find themselves back amongst the ranked teams. Finishing in the top half of the SEC seems to be unlikely this season, as does making the NCAA tournament.

Paging @Amanda Atwell to add her soccer expertise!

Director's Cup Spin:

Women's Soccer is now one of the 5 required sports for the Director's Cup. Missing the tournament would guarantee a score of 0 being included in the final tally for Texas. Making the field of 64 secures 25 points with each successive round increasing the points to 50, 64, 73, 83, 90 and 100. 

[Bobby Burton]

Fellas, this will be a great thread for this year. Thanks, Dr. W!

[Gerry Hamilton]

Love it! Thank you 

[Robert Gilbert]

Thanks for the fantastic info. I look forward to updates throughout the year, both here and on the YouTube channel.  

[Huskie1]

Thank you! I look forward to these updates!

[DirectorsCupUpdates]

Fall Sports Recaps and Previews

Women's Volleyball

While we all fret about the offensive performances on the grid iron, I figured we could use a pick me up with a deep dive on our historically most successful Fall sport - Women's Volleyball.

Last year was an up and down season for Jerritt Elliot's squad as the team uncharacteristically dropped winnable matches and never found their footing against top competition. Lineups, rotations and formations fluctuated throughout the season as the coaching staff searched for consistency but it never truly came. Madisen Skinner performed at a very high level but no other outside hitter really came along to help her carry the load. The 2nd place conference finish was a disappointment for a team that entered the season as one of the most likely Texas teams to secure a SEC conference championship. The struggles continued in the NCAA tournament and the sweet 16 finish was only the 2nd time in the last 20 years the team has not advanced to at least the Elite 8. 

Entering this season, the big questions were - How would Texas replace Madi Skinner at the outside hitter position and would they find consistency at the setter and libero position? So far, both questions have been adamantly answered in the positive.

Texas found its powerhouse Outside Hitter in national semifinalist Pitt Panthers transfer Torrey Stafford. The first team All-American led all of the power 4 in hitting percentage (0.358) last year and opted to spend her Junior year in Austin. She has not slowed down one bit since suiting up for the Longhorns - leading the team with 4.5 kills per set and hitting 0.294 on the year. Making the Texas attack even more dangerous has been super freshman Cari Spears. She is 2nd on the team in kills, 3.8 per set and is hitting at a healthy 0.292 percentage. Feeding the attack has been Ella Swindle, who struggled at times last year but has been very consistent in her setting so far this season.

On the defensive side, Emma Halter has been very effective in the Libero role as the team as a whole has made scoring very tough on their opponents. Indiana Transfer Ramsey Gary has also been very effective subbing in at the Libero position this season. Sophmores Ayden Ames and Nya Byunton have led the charge at the middle blocker position.

If you have missed it, the Texas Longhorns have built an incredible resume through 6 matches.

Wins over #12 Creighton (3-0), #8 Wisconsin (3-0), RV Rice (3-1), #6 Stanford (3-2), #4 Louisville (3-2) and tonight's victory over #9 Arizona State (3-0).

Things don't exactly slow down as they are set to face two other ranked big 12 foes in #15 TCU and #20 Baylor before entering SEC play. While Texas will be the favorite to win the SEC, #3 Kentucky and #8 A&M will be stiff competition. Florida, #11, and Missouri, #23, represent the only other ranked SEC teams at this juncture. 

Director's Cup Spin

Women's Volleyball is one of the 5 required sports for the Director's Cup and Texas is on track to secure another solid score on the volleyball court. It is early in the season but Elite 8 seems like the floor for this team with the team's 5th NCAA Championship being a strong possibility. Women's volleyball follows the 64 team bracket scoring with points starting at 25 and increasing to 50, 64, 73, 83, 90 and 100 with each win.

 

[DirectorsCupUpdates]

On 9/9/2025 at 12:48 PM, DirectorsCupUpdates said:

Fall Sports Recaps and Previews

The Fall sports season is well underway with competition officially starting about 1 month ago in women's soccer. The Texas Longhorns compete in 5 Fall sports - Football, W Soccer, Volleyball and M&W Cross Country. I'll use these next few posts to look back at the previous seasons for each sport, the outlook for this upcoming season and get caught up on results that have already occurred.  Football has plenty of coverage elsewhere and I will not touch on it here. So let's get started!

Womens Soccer

The Longhorns started competing in Women's Soccer in 1994 and over these 32 seasons the team has made 14 NCAA tournament appearances with a high water mark of the sweet 16 on 5 occassions. The team has won 2 regular season conference championships (2001 and 2022 - Big 12) and 4 conference tournaments championships (2006, 2007, 2023 - Big 12, 2024 SEC). The team has enjoyed a really strong stretch over the last 3 seasons and this should come as no surprise as the hands down best player in Texas Soccer history, Lexi Missimo, was on campus during this time. Along with the very talented Trinity Byars and strong defensive efforts from Emj Cox and Goalkeeper Mia Justus this team had a very strong core of athletes on both sides of the field. Unfortunately injuries to Byars to Cox last year limited this ceiling of this team and ultimately lead to a round of 32 exit in the NCAA tournament. 

The story of the 24-25 season will be written based on how the team can replace this experienced core of players. Emj Cox has recovered from her injury and has been back on the field this season but early results show she may not be as effective in her role as she was prior to the injury. Last year's injury to Trinity Byars opened a striker spot and super freshmen Amalia Villareal did a great job stepping in to fill the void. Amalia scored 9 goals and assisted on 8 others on her way to winning the SEC freshmen of the year. Through 7 games this season she leads the team with 3 goals and has contributed 2 assists as well. Her scoring counterpart thus far has been freshmen Ava McDonald who has also netted 3 goals this season. 

Having completed the non-conference slate at 2-4-1, this team has shown some apparent struggles in reloading their roster. Outside of Villarreal and McDonald's 6 goals, only 5 goals have been scored by 4 other players. The team has scored 11 total goals while surrendering 14. The defense has allowed opposing teams to create a lot of opportunities and our Freshmen Goalkeeper, Mateya Dessieux, has not been able to clean up enough of the mistakes. The teams 2 wins on the year have come against Long Beach State and the College of Charleston. 3 Losses have come against big 12 foes (TCU, Baylor, Houston) and the worst of the losses was against Northwestern State.

In summary, this team had a lot of holes to fill coming into the season and it does not seem like this squad has been able to do that successfully. Could a relatively young team continue to find improvement over the season? Yes, and that is the hope. The SEC conference is not incredibly strong in soccer but does have 6 teams in the top 25 with 2 others receiving votes. Texas started in the top 25 but would need to drastically improve results to find themselves back amongst the ranked teams. Finishing in the top half of the SEC seems to be unlikely this season, as does making the NCAA tournament.

Paging @Amanda Atwell to add her soccer expertise!

Director's Cup Spin:

Women's Soccer is now one of the 5 required sports for the Director's Cup. Missing the tournament would guarantee a score of 0 being included in the final tally for Texas. Making the field of 64 secures 25 points with each successive round increasing the points to 50, 64, 73, 83, 90 and 100. 

The Texas women's soccer team starts off SEC play with a 3-1 loss to Missouri. I grow more skeptical of this teams post-season chances with each loss.

Ange Kelly may be coaching for her job this year.