How Oklahoma State overcame unique obstacles for another top-25 Directors' Cup finish

STILLWATER — With its fourth straight top-25 finish in the Learfield Directors’ Cup, Oklahoma State’s athletic success rate is as strong as it’s ever been.

Led by the men’s cross country team’s national championship, OSU finished 19th nationally and second in the Big 12 in the 2023-24 Directors’ Cup scoring, and did so through some unique limitations.

“The Directors’ Cup is a good measurement of athletic success across the board,” OSU athletic director Chad Weiberg told The Oklahoman. “You look at the other people on that list and it puts us among the elite programs in college athletics.”

OSU does not sponsor women’s volleyball, which is a mandatory sport in the Directors’ Cup standings, and OSU does not get credit for equestrian’s third-place finish in the national championship, since equestrian is currently not an officially sanctioned NCAA sport.

“There are some things like that working against us, but I think that makes it all the more impressive that we’re finishing in the top 20 in the country,” Weiberg said. “That shows how competitive we are across the board.”

OSU’s point total of 896.0 was based on 17 sports, while the majority of teams in the top 25 counted 19 sports toward their totals. Texas won the title with 1,377.0 points.

Adding to the constraints OSU faced in accomplishing another top-25 finish, the university ranked 46th nationally among public Division I universities in total revenue and 45th in total expenses for the 2022-23 school year, the most recent fiscal year in which such data is available.

Five Big 12 universities had higher revenue and expenses than OSU in 2022-23, but only Texas finished higher in the Directors’ Cup standings.

Of the 14 public universities that finished ahead of OSU in the Cup standings, 13 had higher revenue for the previous year and 12 were top-20 revenue earners. Only UCLA ranked behind OSU in athletic revenue.

Oklahoma State teams that placed in the top 10 of the 2023-24 Learfield Directors’ Cup standings were men’s cross country (first), women’s cross country (third), men’s indoor track and field (seventh), softball (seventh), women’s indoor track and field (eighth), women’s tennis (ninth) and wrestling (10th). An additional seven teams finished in the top 30 of their sport.

“We are very fortunate to have successful programs here at Oklahoma State,” Weiberg said. “We have the philosophy that if you’re keeping score, you might as well win. So we pride ourselves in being very competitive in everything we do.”