UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Following a tremendous fall sports season, highlighted by five Big Ten Championships, Penn State is No. 8 in the 2012-13 Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup final fall standings.
In the final fall Directors’ Cup standings, Penn State has finished in the Top 10 in each of the last six years and 16 times in the 20 years of the Directors’ Cup program.
Penn State, Maryland and North Carolina were the only Division I institutions to have two fall teams advance to their respective 2012 NCAA semifinals, with the Nittany Lions’ women’s soccer and women’s volleyball doing so.
The Nittany Lions have 323.5 points, reaching the NCAA Championship match in women’s soccer, and finishing tied for third in women’s volleyball, tied for fifth in field hockey, 14th in women’s cross-country and 32nd in men’s cross-country.
Stanford, which has won 18 consecutive Directors’ Cup titles, led the final fall standings with 398 points. The Cardinal are followed by Michigan (373), Florida State (358.5), Notre Dame (353), North Carolina (342), Oregon (334), UCLA (331), Penn State (323.5), Florida (275.5) and Texas (274).
Penn State won five Big Ten Championships this past fall in field hockey (regular season and tournament), men’s soccer, women’s soccer and women’s volleyball. The Nittany Lions registered an impressive 89-20-5 cumulative overall record and a 43-5-3 Big Ten mark in field hockey, football, men’s and women’s soccer, and women’s volleyball this past fall. The women’s cross country team also made history as it captured its first NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional crown.
The Nittany Lions boasted the Big Ten Coach of the Year – Char Morett (field hockey), Russ Rose (women’s volleyball), Erica Walsh (women’s soccer) and Bob Warming (men’s soccer) — for each of their championship-winning teams. In addition, head football coach Bill O’Brien earned conference Coach of the Year accolades from the media and coaches, and director and head coach of track and field/cross-country Beth Alford-Sullivan was named the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Mid-Atlantic Women’s Cross Country Coach of the Year.
The Nittany Lions placed No. 12 in the 2011-12 Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup to earn their 14th Top 15 finish. Penn State is one of only nine programs nationwide to have finished in the Top 25 in all 20 years, joining Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio State, Southern California, Stanford, Texas and UCLA.
Penn State has won 22 NCAA Championships since 1993-94, its first full year in the Big Ten Conference, more than double every other Big Ten institution. Iowa is second with 10. Penn State has won 76 Big Ten Championships all-time.
The Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup standings were developed as a joint effort between the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics and USA Today. Points are awarded based on each institution’s finish in as many as 20 sports — 10 women’s and 10 men’s.
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