The West Virginia Mountaineers finished 42nd in the final Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup standings. The 42nd finish is the fifth-best finish in school history, and the university’s best finish since its 40th-place finish in 2010-2011. Read More: Mountaineers Place 42nd in Directors’ Cup
The Mountaineers showed marked improvement over last year, when they finished 51st in the standings.
The Mountaineers saw much of their success in the Directors’ Cup during the early 2000s. West Virginia finished a school-best 30th-place finish in 2007-2008, a 37th-place finish in 2009-2010, and a 40th-place finish in 2010-2011. The university also finished 41st in 1997-1998.
While the football team’s success delivered many of the top-30 finishes in the 2000s, more recent accomplishments have been fueled by strong spring performances in track and field and other Olympic sports. The Mountaineers earned a total of 595 points, with the majority coming from consistent showings rather than standout national finishes. While WVU lacked deep runs in high-profile sports like basketball or baseball, their overall depth across multiple programs kept them competitive nationally.
The Big 12
According to WVUsports.com, West Virginia finished as the sixth-highest ranked Big 12 school in the final standings: BYU (25th), Oklahoma State (29th), Arizona State (34th), TCU (38th), Texas Tech (40th), West Virginia (42nd), Arizona (43rd), Baylor (52nd), Iowa State (56th), Utah (60th), Kansas (65th), Colorado (69th), Houston (72nd), Kansas State (79th), UCF (83rd) and Cincinnati (125th).
The Directors’ Cup
The Learfield Directors’ Cup, organized by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA), ranks the top college athletic programs in the country based on their overall success across all NCAA sports. Schools earn points based on their teams’ performances in national championship events, with the total score determining each program’s place in the standings.
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The competition includes institutions from Divisions I, II, III, and the NAIA, offering a broad measure of athletic achievement. For the 2024–25 season, the University of Texas claimed the Division I crown, edging out powerhouse programs like Stanford and North Carolina. The final standings, released each June, highlight the schools with the most consistent and wide-ranging athletic success.
