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On the strength of an NCAA championship in softball, Cal placed 20th in the final Sears Director’s Cup standings - the Golden Bears’ third consecutive finish in the Top 20.  

Cal was 12th in the Sears Cup race last year and 15th in 2000. Other Top 20 finishes came in 1994 (17th), 1995 (13th) and 1998 (19th).  

The Sears Cup measures a school’s overall level of success based on performances of teams in 20 selected sports and ranks all 323 NCAA Division I institutions.  

In addition to softball this year, which claimed the first NCAA team championship in school history, Cal also earned third-place finishes in women’s crew and men’s gymnastics, sixth place in men’s swimming and eighth in women’s swimming.  

However, Cal’s finish could have been even higher except that four teams that finished among the top five in the nation did not contribute to the standings. Both rugby and men’s crew defended their national titles, but neither sport competes under the NCAA umbrella. In addition, men’s water polo was ranked second in the final poll and women’s water polo was fifth, but the Bears were not among the four teams invited to their respective NCAA championship tournaments, and thus received no Sears Cup points.