This might be the best year for Nebraska athletics since the 1990s

The Huskers haven't finished top 10 in the Directors' Cup since 1999–00 or the top 20 since 2009–10, but both are in play right now.

Courtesy Nebraska Athletics

To my recollection, it’s tough to beat 1995–96 for athletic excellence at Nebraska. Football won its second consecutive national title while entering the best-ever discussion. Volleyball won its first national title. Women’s basketball made its third NCAA Tournament in program history, as a 9-seed, while the men just missed the field of 64 but won the NIT.

Women’s golf, softball and men’s swimming all had top-25 finishes. Men’s and women’s gymnastics and women’s swimming finished in the top 10, wrestling and men’s and women’s indoor track, the top 5.

All those results that year counted toward the National Association of College Directors of Athletics’ Directors’ Cup, then sponsored by Sears and in its third year of existence, where the Huskers ranked eighth nationally. If you were, say, 15 at the time and perhaps not paying perfect attention because you were more interested in Apex One jackets and Donkey Kong Country 2, it just went into the memory banks as “a lot of winning.”

By NACDA numbers, however, 1996–97 was even better for the Huskers. Football and volleyball didn’t win national titles but they still ranked¹ highly, and Nebraska’s total score was bolstered by cross country and women’s soccer getting on the board alongside slightly better seasons in women’s swimming and softball. Nebraska finished fourth in the Directors’ Cup, still its best ranking to date.

Since finishing in the top 10 of the Directors’ Cup five times in the seven seasons prior to 2000–01, the Huskers have landed in the top 20 three times over 19 years, none since 2010.

Scoring systems are just scoring systems, a constructed attempt to quantify something that isn’t all that quantifiable, but at least they’re an attempt. If an entire industry agrees to use them, they’re the best you’ve got, and, if you go by the Director’s Cup scoring, 2023–24 is the best year for Husker athletics since the 1990s.