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Athletics: Ragin’ Cajuns Rated 34th In CBSSPorts.com Best In College Sports AwardLAFAYETTE – After a record-setting year in which five sports claimed conference championships, the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns athletic program was rated as the 34th-best nationally according to the National Association of College Directors of Athletics (NACDA) and released by CBSSports.com.
Louisiana, which claimed regular-season titles in football, baseball and softball while adding Sun Belt Conference tournament titles in men’s basketball, men’s tennis, baseball and softball, finished as the top non-BCS school in the rankings.
NACDA has been ranking athletic programs for years, but weighs every sport equally, meaning a football national title is worth the same number of points (100) as a women’s water polo title. But the CBSSports.com "Best in College Sports Award" is more reflective of those sports that generate the broadest base of fan and media interest.
Five sports — football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, baseball and a "wild card" sport (which took the best season performance from a group that includes: softball, men’s lacrosse, men’s ice hockey, men’s soccer, wrestling, women’s soccer or women’s gymnastics) – were rated in the poll.
The CBSSports.com formula — which takes into account only schools that field FBS football programs — weighed football three times as much, while men’s basketball is worth twice as many points as the other sports that are part of the formula. General fan and media interest in those sports, relative to the others that were part of our survey, informed that part of the formula.
Finishing with 262 points in the CBSSports.com formula, Louisiana earned 75 points in football after the Ragin’ Cajuns posted a 9-4 record and earned their third consecutive trip to the R�L Carriers New Orleans Bowl.
The Ragin’ Cajuns softball team recorded 73 points as a wild-card entry by virtue of their appearance in the Women’s College World Series in May, the Cajuns’ baseball team earned 64 points after reaching the Super Regionals and the men’s basketball team recorded 50 points after winning the Sun Belt Conference Tournament and advancing to the NCAA Championships for the first time since 2006.
Florida State received 300 points for winning the football national title (100 points times three). Auburn finished second in the AP poll for football and was awarded 270 points. Football teams that finished with a winning record or went to a bowl game, but didn’t rank in the final AP Top 25, received 75 points (25 points times three). Teams that were bowl-eligible, but didn’t play in the postseason were awarded 30 points.
For all titles that were settled via a bracket, point totals were based on via how many teams filled out the bracket. UConn’s national title in men’s basketball was worth 200 points. Florida’s Final Four appearance was worth 166 points, Michigan State’s Elite Eight appearance was worth 146, and so on. Teams that made the NIT, CBI or CIT were given 20 points (10 points times two).
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