The Capital One Cup is a multi-sport award given to a school to acknowledge athletic success across all sports. Several sports programs from higher-education institutions across the United States are pitted against each other, acquiring points throughout the school year based on how individual sports teams finish in national championships. Sports are divided into two groups based on popularity and pool of competition, with Group B scoring three times the amount of points of Group A. There are separate Cups for men's and women's sports. "
Scoring System
The Capital One Cup employs a two-tiered scoring system in which certain sports (called "Group B") are valued more highly than others (labeled "Group A"). Schools' performances in the Group B sports earn three times as many points as those in Group A. This valuing of certain high-profile sports over smaller, less followed sports has drawn criticism from college sports administrators. In its six-year history, the Capital One Cup has revised its scoring system on several occasions. These various revisions have addressed such issues as the number of scoring tiers to include, the inclusion/exclusion of certain sports from the scoring system, as well as the tier designation of the included sports. In previous scoring systems, more sports were included in the higher point tiers, but with the most recent scoring structure (2015-2016), only five sports were given the Group B designation for both the men's and women's Cups.
The current Capital One Cup scoring structure:
Group A men's sports include cross country, skiing, rifle, water polo, indoor track & field, outdoor track & field, wrestling, fencing, swimming & diving, ice hockey, gymnastics, volleyball, tennis, and golf. Group B men's sports include soccer, football (FCS), football (FBS), basketball, lacrosse, and baseball.
Group A women's sports include field hockey, cross country, skiing, rifle, indoor track & field, outdoor track & field, swimming & diving, ice hockey, fencing, bowling, gymnastics, water polo, tennis, golf, rowing, and beach volleyball. Group B women's sports include soccer, volleyball, basketball, lacrosse, and softball.