UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Penn State Athletics is off to another strong start in the Learfield Sports Directors' Cup, earning its seventh consecutive Top 10 finish during the fall sports season.
The Nittany Lions are tied for sixth place, with Wisconsin, having tallied 315 points during the fall. Penn State has finished the fall sports season in the Top 10 a total 17 times in the 21 years of the Directors’ Cup. Penn State’s last fall finish outside the Top 10 was in 2006-07 (13th).
Penn State won the 2013 NCAA Women's Volleyball Championship and claimed Big Ten titles in women's volleyball, field hockey and men's soccer last fall.
Penn State was one of just four institutions to earn points in at least six sports during the fall, joining Stanford, Michigan State and North Carolina. The Cardinal are atop the final fall standings with 461.25 points followed by Michigan State (382.50), Florida State (351.50), North Carolina (333), Virginia (323), Penn State (315) and Wisconsin (315). Notre Dame, Duke and Colorado round our the Top 10.
The next release of the Learfield Sports Directors' Cup standings will be announced in late March.
The women's volleyball team led the charge last fall for the Nittany Lions, capturing its sixth NCAA title with a 3-1 win over Wisconsin in the NCAA Championship match to score 100 points in the Directors' Cup standings. Coach Russ Rose's squad (34-2) won its fifth NCAA crown in the past seven years. The program's six NCAA titles are tied with Stanford for most in the nation.
Five additional Penn State teams participated in their respective NCAA Championship and scored Directors' Cup points last fall: men's cross-country, women's cross-country, field hockey, men's soccer and women's soccer.
Penn State has won 24 NCAA Championships since 1993-94, its first full year in the Big Ten Conference, more than double every other Big Ten institution. The Nittany Lions have won 70 team national championships all-time and 84 Big Ten crowns since 1992-93.
The Nittany Lions have finished in the Top 25 in all 20 Learfield Sports Directors' Cup standings, placing No. 6 in 2012-13, to earn their 15th Top 15 finish.
Penn State is one of only nine programs nationwide to have finished in the final Top 25 in every Directors' Cup standings, joined by Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio State, Southern California, Stanford, Texas and UCLA.
The Learfield Sports Directors' Cup standings were developed as a joint effort between the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) and USA Today. Points are awarded based on each institution's finish in up to 20 sports -- 10 women's and 10 men's.