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Tennessee Vols have worst finish in over 20 years in Director’s Cup standings

By Caleb Calhoun

Feb 22, 2017; Knoxville, TN, USA; The Tennessee Volunteers flag is seen during pregame festivities before the Volunteers game against the Vanderbilt Commodores. Mandatory Credit: Brianna Paciorka/Knoxville News Sentinel via USA TODAY NETWORK
Feb 22, 2017; Knoxville, TN, USA; The Tennessee Volunteers flag is seen during pregame festivities before the Volunteers game against the Vanderbilt Commodores. Mandatory Credit: Brianna Paciorka/Knoxville News Sentinel via USA TODAY NETWORK /
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The Director’s Cup standings are in for the 2016-2017 sports year, and it was not good news for UT. The Volunteers had their worst finish in 23 years.

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Tennessee Vols athletic director John Currie now at least has a measuring stick when looking at what he needs to do going forward. And that measuring stick is the new Director’s Cup ranking.

The Vols came in No. 46 in the nation in the standings, which you can see here.

That’s the worst showing since the 1993-1994 year, when they went 8-4 in football and were drug down by a horrendous 5-22 men’s basketball season.

This year, with a final score of 509, Tennessee finished third from last in the SEC, only ahead of the Mississippi State Bulldogs and the Vanderbilt Commodores.

No score in baseball for the spring killed their overall score.

The Stanford Cardinal and Ohio State Buckeyes came in at No. 1 and No. 2 in the standings, while the Florida Gators were the highest ranked SEC program, coming in at No. 3.

The Kentucky Wildcats were the only other SEC school in the Top 10, coming in at No. 10.

In terms of conference success, the Pac-12 and Big Ten were clearly the two most successful athletic conferences overall.

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These Director’s Cup standings show that it was a down year for the Tennessee Vols, but it doesn’t reflect all of Dave Hart’s decisions. Hart was tasked with a program built on a house of cards when he took over, and it would have been impossible to stop the slide.

So the standings for the year aren’t the barometer for his work. However, they do show that John Currie has work to do to keep the program moving in the right direction.

He’s already had to make some bold moves since he took over, and with the pressure on, he’ll have to make quite a few more in the future.

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