CLEVELAND, Ohio - After a record-breaking year that included eight NCAA Tournament appearances, The University of Scranton posted its highest-ever finish in the 2022-23 LEARFIELD Directors' Cup Standings that were released on Tuesday afternoon. The Royals finished in 49th.
Overall Standings | Standings by Conference
The Royals totaled 380.50 points for the year, which included the eight NCAA Tournament appearances and five NCAA Tournament victories. Women's soccer advanced to the Sweet 16 for a second consecutive year, while the volleyball and men's and women's basketball programs all notched first round victories.
Other highlights on the year for Scranton included Landmark Conference titles and ensuing NCAA berths for men's golf, men's and women's lacrosse and men's soccer. Graduate student Jessica Hoffmann of the women's cross country team also earned Scranton 32.5 points by virtue of a 29th place finish at the NCAA Championships to earn All-American honors.
Juniata College finished in 107th place with 160 points. The Eagles won the program's third women's volleyball national title in November. Elizabethtown College ranked 115th with 147.5 points and Susquehanna University came in 119th place with 142.5 total points. Both the Blue Jays and River Hawks participated in the NCAA Baseball Championship and Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
Drew University ranked 146th with 119.0 points after competing in both men's and women's tennis at the NCAA Championships this spring. Catholic University, which ranked 153rd with 113.0 points, participated at the NCAA Women's Golf Championships and Men's Outdoor Track & Field Championships. Moravian University rounded out the Landmark teams as the Greyhounds ranked 156th with 110.5 points. Moravian earned 78 points this spring after their fifth-place showing in the NCAA Softball World Series. They additionally had a women's outdoor track and field relay team compete at the NCAA Outdoor Championship.
For the fifth-straight year, Johns Hopkins University finished in the top 10 of the LEARFIELD Directors’ Cup standings, this time as the overall champion with 1282.00 total points. This is the first Cup win for Johns Hopkins, having scored in 19 total sports (all four countable sports), including 14 teams with top-10 finishes. The Blue Jays took home national championships in women’s soccer and women’s cross country.
Overall, up to 18 total sports may count towards the final Directors’ Cup standings, four of which must be men’s basketball and soccer, and women’s basketball and soccer, leaving the next 14 highest points scored to also be counted.
The Learfield IMG Directors' Cup was developed as a joint effort between the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) and USA Today. Through the course of the year, Directors' Cup points are awarded based on a school's finish in up to 18 sports – nine men and nine women – in NCAA Championships. New to the scoring structure five years ago in Division III, men's and women's soccer and men's and women's basketball must be included by every school in their scoring total. Previously, the top nine men's and women's scoring teams could be counted; now, regardless of whether a school's soccer and basketball teams qualify for the NCAAs, they must be counted.