Powered by its incredible men’s and women’s cross-country teams, BYU is once again among the nation’s premier athletic programs.
The Cougars finished No. 25 in the Learfield Directors’ Cup standings for the recently completed 2024-25 school year, improving upon last year’s No. 36 finish. The Cougars racked up 813.75 points, after notching 637.5 points in 2023-24.
It is the second time since 2021 and eighth time in the past 22 years that BYU has finished in the top 25.
The higher the national finish, the higher the point total awarded to the institution. For instance, BYU garnered the maximum 100 points per team last November when it swept the NCAA cross-country championships, the first school since Colorado in 2004 to win both titles on the same day.
The Directors’ Cup, directed by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA), recognizes schools for all-around success in NCAA-sponsored sports.
Texas won the overall title again with 1,255.25 points, edging out USC by 1.5 points. BYU was the highest ranked Big 12 school in the Directors’ Cup final standings.
This is the second-straight year that BYU can claim instate supremacy, after Utah broke through in 2022-23 to dethrone the Cougars for the first time since the Directors’ Cup program began in 1993.
Fueled by the ski team’s national championship, the Utes picked up 423.5 points this school year, placing 60th.
Among the other Utah schools, Utah State of the Mountain West checked in at 104th place with 180 points, followed by Utah Valley (143rd), Southern Utah (221st) and Weber State (254th).
The Wildcats got all 37.5 of their points when their softball team made the NCAA Tournament.
BYU does not have some of the spring sports, such as lacrosse, rowing, water polo and beach volleyball, but still garnered 90.75 points in that period because its men’s golf team placed 13th (62.25 points) and its women’s golf team placed 43rd (28.5 points) at their respective national events in the spring.
As has generally been the case, BYU started strong due to the success of its football, cross-country and women’s soccer and volleyball teams, then faded a bit as the school year wore on. The Cougars were in fourth place, with 311.5 points, at the conclusion of the fall seasons, trailing only Stanford, North Carolina and Penn State.
BYU earned 61.5 points when its football team went 11-2 and was ranked No. 13 in the final Associated Press Top 25 poll.
The Cougars picked up 291 points in the winter sports, and were 10th overall at the conclusion of those events. The men’s basketball team’s Sweet 16 run (tied for ninth, essentially) garnered the Cougars 64 points.
BYU is the highest-placing Big 12 school in the standings, with Oklahoma State second at No. 29 and Arizona State third at No. 34.
