COLLEGES:UCI’s success rings loud nationwide

The Pac-10, the Big Ten, the Southeastern, the Atlantic Coast, the Big 12 and the Big East. They are known to millions of college sports fans as the power conferences. They set the pace, fuel television network schedules, and their member institutions have athletic budgets eclipsing the hundreds of millions.

They now have something else in common.

All had at least one member institution that ranked below UC Irvine in the Directors’ Cup standings, compiled annually by the Collegiate Directors of Athletics, United States Sports Academy and USA Today to rank the best overall collegiate athletics programs among the country’s 285 Division I schools.

UCI, known mostly for its research, its handful of Nobel Prize winners and, well, for its unique mascot, cracked the top 20% among those 285 schools in terms of program-wide success in the 2006-07 school/athletic year with a No. 56 ranking.

In a system that awards points for postseason success in as many as 20 sports (10 men’s and 10 women’s), the Anteaters amassed 367 points.

Of those, 100 were earned by the men’s volleyball national championship and 83 more came from the baseball team’s third-place finish at the College World Series.

Women’s golf contributed 55 points for a 19th-place finish, while men’s swimming (25th), women’s swimming (33rd), women’s tennis (33rd) and men’s golf (58th) were among those that added to the total.

UCI finished first among Big West schools, five spots ahead of UC Santa Barbara (326 1/2 points), which pocketed the conference’s other national title this year (men’s soccer).

The rest of the Big West included Cal State Fullerton (79), Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (84), Long Beach State (91), Cal State Northridge (200), Pacific and UC Riverside (both tied at 213 with 50 points). UC Davis, which becomes a full-fledged member of the conference beginning next fall, ranked 210th.

Also finishing behind UCI were schools like West Virginia, Boston College and Miami of Florida (57 through 59, respectively), Kansas (66), Iowa (68), Pitt (71), Georgetown (76) and Connecticut (82).

Every school that finished ahead of UCI has a football team, a major budgetary boon at schools recognized for athletic excellence. UCSB was the only other school without football in the top 73.

Even more remarkable, UCI athletic programs achieved this success in the face of program-wide budget cuts that constricted the already small margin for error when it comes to recruiting, scheduling and attracting/keeping quality assistant coaches and support personnel.

Vince O’Boyle, the ‘Eaters’ veteran and venerable men’s and women’s cross country and men’s and women’s track and field coach, likes to boast about the competitive nature that streams from the rows of coaching offices housed by Crawford Hall.

The 2006-07 success, with equal or greater promise for the future, would surely give credence to O’Boyle’s beliefs.

A FAMILIAR TOP 10

Stanford captured its 13th straight Directors’ Cup with 1,429 points.

The rest of the top 10, in order, consisted of: UCLA (1,257); North Carolina (1,161 1/3 ); Michigan (1,135 1/4 ); USC (1,103 1/2 ); Florida (1,064 1/4 ); Tennessee (1,045 3/4 ); Texas (1,037 1/4 ); California (1,030) and Arizona State (1,005).

ONE THAT GOT AWAY

The news was not all good in June for the UCI baseball program, which lost top recruit Daniel Carroll to the Seattle Mariners.

Carroll, a third-round draft pick (105th overall) as an outfielder out of Valley View High in Moreno Valley, had signed a letter of intent to play for the Anteaters in 2008.

But the 6-foot-1, 175-pounder showed he was ready for the professional ranks with the Mariners’ Arizona (rookie) League affiliate. He had 11 hits in his first 22 at-bats, including at least one hit in his first six pro games. He also had three stolen bases.

“Danny Carroll is an exceptional talent,” UCI Coach Dave Serrano said. “When you get into those [high rounds], you know you’re playing with fire. Major League scouts and scouting directors are usually drafting on sign-ability, so they have to have gotten word somewhere that the kid was interested in signing.”

ADDING TO THE ARSENAL

Serrano, who has praised the potential of pitcher Bryce Stowell, forced to redshirt this season when Pepperdine did not release him after he transferred to UCI in the fall, has heard encouraging reports about Stowell in the Cape Cod League.

Serrano said Stowell, who will be a sophomore next season, was throwing between 90 and 96 mph in his first start for the Hyannis Mets.

In that game, Stowell pitched five innings, allowing three hits and two earned runs. He struck out six.

BARRY FAULKNER may be reached at (714) 966-4615 or at [email protected].