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placed in the top 20 of the 2022-23 LEARFIELD Sports Directors’ Cup for NCAA Division III, earning the No. 19 spot out of 441 DIII programs. This placement is the 17th time the Tigers have earned a top 20 spot in the 28 years of the award’s existence. 

The LEARFIELD Directors’ Cup was developed as a joint effort between the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics and USA Today. This annual competition measures how well schools in each NCAA division can assemble athletics departments that are successful from top to bottom. Scoring is based on each school’s finish in the NCAA Championships, and institutions must submit their men’s and women’s soccer and basketball teams for scoring as well as their top-scoring 14 teams, regardless of gender. All 18 �԰����� teams contribute to the Directors’ Cup score, while many other athletic programs can cherry-pick from well over 20 sports. 

Racking up a total of 653.5 points for the school year, �԰����� ranked the best out of its conference peers, with Colorado College (208 total points) coming in second in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) at No. 92 in the Directors’ Cup standings. In the Southern Athletic Association, of which �԰����� Football is an affiliate member and which the University will be joining as a full member in 2025, �԰����� also took home the top rank, with Centre College (331.30 points) following at No. 56.

Tiger spring sports contributed 276.5 points to �԰�����’s total: Men’s Tennis (64 points) advanced to the Round of 16 in the NCAA Playoffs and finished in a tie for 9th place; Women’s Golf (52.5 points) tied for 12th place; Men’s Golf (60 points) placed 15th; and both Baseball (50 points) and Women’s Tennis (50 points) tied for 17th place in their respective NCAA Tournament events.

Winter sports contributed 170 points: Women’s Basketball (64 points) placed 9th after advancing to the Sweet 16; Women’s Swimming and Diving (55 points) was 19th in their NCAA Tournament events; and Men’s Swimming and Diving (51 points) finished in 23rd place.

Fall sports contributed 207 points: Volleyball (90 points) was the runner-up in the NCAA Championship, while both Football (64 points) and Women’s Soccer (53 points) tied for 9th place.

This news comes on the heels of �԰����� winning its 12th consecutive—and 23rd overall—SCAC Presidents’ Trophy, awarded to the top team in the conference based on conference finish. The Tigers won 10 SCAC championships this year and finished no worse than third in the conference in all sports.  

�԰����� Athletics also brought home a slew of more awards this year: 26 All-Americans, 21 Conference Players of the Year (including 5 first-year/newcomer of the year awards); 8 Coach of the Year awards (SCAC or regional); 13 national academic honors (and more to come); and 14 of 18 teams/individuals in the NCAA postseason.