UNC finished fourth in the final standings for the 2024-25 Learfield Directors’ Cup, which measures achievements across 19 different sports. The fourth-place finish is UNC’s best in the last 16 seasons.

The Tar Heels accrued 1,195.25 points in the standings. The only schools ahead of UNC were No. 1 Texas (which won its fourth title in the last five years), No. 2 USC and No. 3 Stanford. It’s the sixth straight season, ninth time in the last 10 seasons and 26th time overall UNC has finished in at least the Top 10. Filling out the rest of the Top 10 were No. 5 UCLA, No. 6 Tennessee, No. 7 Florida, No. 8 Ohio State, No. 9 Oklahoma and No. 10 Duke. No. 12 Virginia and No. 20 NC State were the other ACC schools in the Top 20 of the standings.

UNC is one of only three schools who have ever won the Directors’ Cup, with Texas and Stanford being the others. Carolina was the champion for the 1993-94 season, the first time the Directors’ Cup was awarded. Overall, UNC’s 26 Top 10 finishes account for nearly half of the ACC’s 54 as a conference. The 2024-25 season is also the 26th time in 31 years of the competition that UNC had the most or second-most points among all ACC member schools. For a full look at the Directors’ Cup standings, click here.

The UNC women’s soccer and women’s lacrosse programs each took home NCAA titles during the 2024-25 season, the 51st and 52nd for the school as a whole and the 38th and 39th won by women’s programs. The 2024-25 academic year is the seventh in a row in which at least one UNC team won an NCAA title and the second in the last three years in which multiple programs have won titles.

UNC had nine different programs finish in their respective Top 10s: women’s soccer (first), women’s lacrosse (first), field hockey (third), women’s tennis (third), men’s cross country (sixth), men’s indoor track and field (eighth), baseball (ninth), women’s basketball (ninth) and men’s lacrosse (ninth). Women’s cross country, fencing, gymnastics, women’s swimming and diving, men’s outdoor track and field, volleyball, men’s swimming and diving and women’s indoor track and field all finished in their respective Top 25s. In total, 26 of UNC’s 28 varsity programs made it to their respective postseasons.

 

Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications

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