USC wins its first Women’s Capital One Cup as top athletics program

USC, which had eight of its women’s teams finish in the Top 10 in NCAA championship play during the just-concluded 2015-16 season, won its first Women’s Capital One Cup, a prestigious annual all-sports competition that determines the best women’s and men’s Division I collegiate athletics programs.

USC also was fourth in the 2015-16 Learfield Directors’ Cup Division I final standings, which annually decides the nation’s most broad-based athletic program by combining men’s and women’s finishes in 10 sports each. The university was just half a point out of third place. That was the Trojans’ fourth Top 10 finish in the past five years, and it follows their best-ever third place finish in 2014-15.  Stanford captured its 22nd consecutive Directors’ Cup in 2015-16.

In the 2015-16 Capital One Cup standings, the Women of Troy scored 96 points to edge the Stanford women (90 points) and Penn State’s (83.5). It was the closest Capital One Cup finish since the program’s launch in 2010.

Points toward the Women’s Capital One Cup are based on final standings in each of the 18 NCAA women’s championships.

Wins on the sand and in the water

This year, USC’s women won NCAA crowns in beach volleyball and water polo. The Women of Troy also had NCAA Top 10 finishes in lacrosse (tie for fifth tie), volleyball (tie for fifth), golf (tie for fifth), swimming (sixth), track (tie for ninth) and indoor track (tie for 10th).

USC will receive $200,000 from Capital One for student-athlete scholarships. The Capital One Cup trophy will be presented to several Women of Troy student-athletes at the ESPY Awards on July 13.

We are honored to receive this award and applaud our women’s athletes and coaching staff on this remarkable achievement.

Lynn Swann

“We have always been proud of our women’s athletics program and are excited to see it recognized as the winner of the 2015-16 Capital One Cup,” said USC Athletic Director Lynn Swann. “As a first for our university, we are honored to receive this award and applaud our women’s athletes and coaching staff on this remarkable achievement. All of us at USC would like to extend our gratitude to Capital One for its continued support of student-athletes.”

USC’s men finished 32nd in the 2015-16 Men’s Capital One Cup standings, which was won by Stanford. Five Trojan men’s squads placed in the NCAA Top 15 this year, including a pair in the Top 3: water polo (second), golf (tie for third), tennis (tie for ninth), track (12th) and swimming (15th).

The Capital One Cup is in its sixth year.