MCLEAN, Va., April 26, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Capital One Financial Corporation (NYSE: COF), an official NCAA® Corporate Champion, announced the winter standings for the Capital One Cup, which is awarded to the best men's and best women's Division I athletics programs in the country. North Carolina, fresh off an Elite Eight® appearance in the 2012 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship, has taken sole possession of the lead on the men's side with 75 points. In the women's standings, Stanford's fourth-place finish in Swimming and Diving helped vault it over UCLA for the lead on the women's side with 109.5 points.

With 13 championships remaining in the NCAA Division I spring season, the race for the Capital One Cup trophies and the combined $400,000 to fund scholarships for student-athletes is up for grabs.

Below are the official 2011-12 Capital One Cup standings after the winter season, with the Top 10 point earners in men's and women's athletics listed. The complete standings can be found at CapitalOneCup.com/standings or Facebook.com/CapitalOneCup.

Winter Athletics Season Highlights:

• Men's NCAA championship winners were Vermont (Skiing), Florida (Indoor Track and Field), Penn State (Wrestling), Ohio State (Fencing), California (Swimming and Diving), Kentucky (Basketball), Boston College (Ice Hockey) and Illinois (Gymnastics).
• Women's NCAA championship winners were Vermont (Skiing), Texas Christian (Rifle), Oregon (Indoor Track and Field), California (Swimming and Diving), Minnesota (Ice Hockey), Ohio State (Fencing), Baylor (Basketball), Maryland-Eastern Shore (Bowling), Alabama (Gymnastics).
• The Baylor women's Basketball team won the national championship and became the first team in NCAA history to win 40 games in a season.
• It was the third-straight national championship for Florida's men and Oregon's women in Indoor Track and Field.
• Alabama won its second-straight national championship in women's Gymnastics.
• In total, 89 schools have earned points in the Capital One Cup men's standings and 87 schools have earned points in the women's standings.

"I'm proud to partner with Capital One, which, in the year of Title IX's 40th anniversary, has worked hard to promote the outstanding achievements of student-athletes involved in women's college sports," said Capital One Cup Advisory Board member and former University of Southern California student-athlete Lisa Leslie. "These next few months are going to be very exciting with so many schools still having a shot at claiming the women's trophy and scholarship dollars."

"Just like last year, it is going to be a frantic race for the men's Capital One Cup all the way down to the last men's spring NCAA championship," said Clark Kellogg, Capital One Cup Advisory Board member and former basketball student-athlete at The Ohio State University.   "Schools like North Carolina and Kentucky have bolstered their rankings on the strength of their finishes in basketball, but it's going to take a well-rounded effort for the school that wins the men's Cup."

This is the second year of the Capital One Cup.  Schools earn points based on their teams' Top 10 finishes in NCAA Division I championships and in final official coaches' polls across 19 men's and 20 women's sports as they compete to win the prestigious Capital One Cup trophies and a combined $400,000 for student-athlete scholarships. The Capital One Cup winners will be determined at the end of the spring season and honored at the ESPY Awards in July.  Last year the University of Florida won the men's Capital One Cup and Stanford University claimed the women's Capital One Cup.

Please visit us at CapitalOneCup.com, Facebook.com/CapitalOneCup and Twitter.com/CapitalOneCup for more information and news on the Capital One Cup as well as updates on the standings.

About Capital One
Capital One Financial Corporation (www.capitalone.com) is a financial holding company whose subsidiaries, which include Capital One, N.A., Capital One Bank (USA), N. A., and ING Bank, fsb, had $216.5 billion in deposits and $294.5 billion in total assets outstanding as of March 31, 2012. Headquartered in McLean, Virginia, Capital One and ING Direct offer a broad spectrum of financial products and services to consumers, small businesses and commercial clients through a variety of channels. Capital One, N.A. has approximately 1,000 branch locations primarily in New York, New Jersey, Texas, Louisiana, Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. A Fortune 500 company, Capital One trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "COF" and is included in the S&P 100 index.

Capital One, an NCAA Corporate Champion, began its affiliation with college sports with the sponsorship of the 2001 Capital One Florida Citrus Bowl (now the Capital One Bowl) and ESPN's Capital One Bowl Week. In addition, Capital One sponsors the ABC College Football Halftime Report, Capital One All-America Mascot team, Capital One Academic All-America Program, and supports all 89 NCAA Championships including the Division I Men's and Women's Basketball Championships, and numerous other collegiate athletics programs.

About the NCAA
The NCAA is a membership-led nonprofit association of colleges and universities committed to supporting academic and athletic opportunities for more than 400,000 student-athletes at more than 1,000 member colleges and universities. Each year, more than 54,000 student-athletes compete in NCAA championships in Divisions I, II and III sports. Visit www.ncaa.org and www.ncaa.com for more details about the Association, its goals and members and corporate partnerships that help support programs for student-athletes.  The NCAA is proud to have the following elite companies as official Corporate Champions—AT&T, Capital One and Coca-Cola—and the following elite companies as official Corporate Partners—Allstate, Buick, Enterprise, Infiniti, LG, Lowe's, Northwestern Mutual, Reese's (Hershey's), Unilever, UPS and Wheat Thins (Kraft).

NCAA and Elite Eight are licensed by or registered trademarks of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.  All other licenses or trademarks are property of their respective holders.

SOURCE Capital One