The Learfield Director’s Cup* results were announced this week, and once again UNC led the ACC. This year, Tar Heel teams compiled enough post-season success to finish fifth nationally in the cup standings, behind Stanford, Ohio State, Florida and Southern California — all schools with bigger athletic budgets.

This was the Tar Heels’ 11th top-five and 20th top-10 finish in the 24-year history of the award. It marks the 18th time UNC is the highest-ranked ACC program in the year-end standings. The Cup measures NCAA post-season success and awards points to a maximum of 10 men’s and 10 women’s sports per school. It’s one thing to field 28 varsity teams, but it’s quite another to have most of them compete for national championships.

Florida State was 13th nationally in 2016-17; Virginia, at 19th, was the only other ACC school to finish in the top 20. Heck, national football champion Clemson was 52nd, and the only members of the 15-school ACC that finished lower than the Tigers were Wake Forest, Miami, BC, Pitt and Georgia Tech.

In the history of the Director’s Cup, Carolina has been out of the top 10 only four times. The Tar Heels were first in the ACC for the third consecutive year and the 18th time overall – no other school has led the ACC more than three times. This speaks to the university’s commitment to run a broad-based athletic program, offering more than 700 athletes a chance to compete at the highest level.

UNC was led by men’s basketball, which earned the maximum 100 points as NCAA champion; field hockey and men’s tennis both wound up second in the nation and earned 90 points each. Four other Carolina teams finished in the top five in their NCAA tourneys – men’s and women’s soccer both tied for third and women’s lacrosse and women’s tennis both tied for fifth place. Women’s golf, men’s lacrosse and volleyball placed ninth to give the Tar Heels 10 teams in the top 10. Four other teams – women’s swimming and diving, baseball, softball and men’s golf – had top-20 performances.

Stanford won the Directors Cup for the 23rd consecutive year with 1,563 points. UNC, which won in 1993-94, is the only other school to win the Division I title. So while it always seems to be a battle for second place, Carolina remains one of the elite schools across the board. Even when the odds seem stacked against that kind of consistency.

*Click here to see the full Division I standings.