FSU Sports: Thoughts on Noles finishing ninth in Director’s Cup
By Kelvin Hunt
FSU sports continue to prove the university is one of the premier institutions when it comes to student-athletes success.
FSU sports experienced one of its best years in recent memory in the past year and the surprising thing was the football team had one of its worst years in a decade.
It’s a testament to what FSU sports has become as a whole with several programs being represented on a national stage while doing excellent work in the classroom.
It was announced FSU sports athletes had a cumulative 3.0 GPA for the first time ever in 2017.
That coupled with the success of all the FSU sport teams propelled the Noles to a ninth place finish in the NACDA Learfield Director’s Cup.
Florida State Seminoles Football
It was the highest finish for the Noles since the 2011-12 season where they finished fifth and was the highest ranked university in the ACC ahead of Duke.
The FSU basketball team made the Elite 8, FSU softball won a National Title, Track and Field were among the best in the nation and FSU Beach Volleyball played for a National Title.
Also, FSU baseball won the ACC Baseball Tournament in back-to-back years for the first time ever.
Thoughts
It’s great work by Athletic Director Stan Wilcox and all the coaches and support staff for each team. A cumulative 3.0 GPA for student-athletes who are competing in arguably the toughest conference across the board is a selling point to potential recruits.
It’s not all about taking classes to remain eligible(that happens everywhere to be honest), but more about setting the athletes up for success once their college careers are over.
A prime example is former FSU defensive back Nate Andrews finished his FSU career this year and already has a coaching job. I was told by a parent of a FSU 2019 commit that the new coaching staff is trying to provide football players a guide on how to graduate in three years if they wish to play in the NFL.
That way they’ll have a degree and can chase their NFL dreams at the same time. That sounds like a winning plan to me!
Next: Top 5 Defenses Noles Will Face In 2018
Great job by the FSU administration and everyone evolved, especially the student-athletes who made it happen!