After winning both the men's and women's hockey titles, the University of Wisconsin has moved up to third place in the latest U.S. Sports Academy Director's Cup standings, which were released Thursday.
UW has three national championships this year, including the men's cross country title from the fall. The UW's women's volleyball trip to the Elite Eight also gave the Badgers big points.
Wisconsin now has a total of 616 points, with each hockey title adding 50 points. The Badgers are only behind Stanford and Texas, who have 737 points and 647.5 points respectively.
The final winter standings will come out April 27 with some sports still finishing up. If UW maintains its position, it will tie its highest ranking ever after the winter season, with UW also grabbing a third-place position in 2001.
The Big Ten holds three of the top five spots in the standings. Penn State is just behind Wisconsin after its Orange Bowl victory in January, and Ohio State checks in at No. 5 after its recent Rose Bowl win.
The U.S. Sports Academy Director's Cup standings have been around since the 1993-'94 season and were developed by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics and USA Today.
In that opening year, Wisconsin finished at No. 12, its highest finish ever, with help from their first-ever Rose Bowl victory in January of 1994. In 2001, when Wisconsin was ranked third after the winter season, they finished No. 20.
Men's indoor track and field (72 points), women's swimming (69), wrestling (53), men's basketball (25) and women's indoor track and field (20) all gained points for Wisconsin in the winter season.
—uwbadgers.com contributed to this report.
