With the conclusion this week of the College World Series in which Vanderbilt defeated Michigan, the 2018-19 Division I Learfield IMG College Directors’ Cup Standings saw Notre Dame finish No. 17 among the 295 teams that tallied points in one sport or another. It was the school's best placement since also coming in at No. 17 in 2016.
Each school can count its top-scoring 19 sports toward the final point total, but four of the sports have to be baseball, men’s basketball, women’s basketball and volleyball. The maximum point total that can be earned in a sport is 100 with a national title.
The competition began with the 1993-1994 academic year, and the Stanford Cardinal has captured the Cup each time since 1995, this year with 1,567.75 points. The Cardinal won six national titles during the 2018-19 academic year: women’s volleyball, women’s swimming and diving, men’s gymnastics, women’s water polo, women’s tennis and men’s golf.
Michigan finished as the runner-up with 1,272.25 points and was the lone cold-weather school to finish among the top 10. That group was rounded out by Florida, Texas, USC, UCLA, and then the ACC quartet of Florida State, Virginia, Duke and North Carolina, whose 987.00 points were the first in the rankings to be under 1,000.
Among the 15 ACC schools, Notre Dame was No. 5 with 885.00 points. The Fighting Irish also were fifth nationally among cold-weather schools, behind Michigan, No. 12 Ohio State (986.00), No. 13 Penn State (963.50) and No. 16 Wisconsin (895.00).
The autumn sports phase concluded with the College Football Playoff national title on Jan. 9, the winter phase ended April 25, and the spring this week with the CWS.
Spring Sports Point Total: 263.00
Notre Dame did not score any points in baseball, which finished 24-30 and helped result in head coach Mik Aoki not returning for a 10th season in 2020, leading to a current search for a new boss.
The Irish also did not score points in men’s and women’s golf, rowing and women’s tennis. Other spring sports such as men’s volleyball, women’s water polo and beach volleyball are not offered at Notre Dame.
• Men’s lacrosse earned 60 points, advancing to the Elite 8 in the 17-team field that included a play-in. The Irish defeated Johns Hopkins in the first round before falling in overtime to its nemesis, Duke.
• Women’s lacrosse received 53 points for defeating Stanford in the first round but losing to Northwestern in the second round of the NCAA Championships. There were 28 teams invited into the field, hence the fewer points than the men.
• Highlighted by sophomore Yared Nuguse’s epic comeback and final kick to win the national title in the 1,500 meters race, Notre Dame’s No. 28 overall finish in the NCAA Track & Field Championships resulted in 44 points.
• The women’s track and field team contributed 43.5 points with its No. 30 placement.
• In softball the Irish women advanced to their 21st consecutive NCAA Championships, but in the double elimination format were unable to get past the first round and finished with 37.5 points.
• Men’s tennis headed to the NCAA Championships with a No. 26 ranking but lost to No. 35 Vanderbilt in the first round, thereby meriting 25 points.
Winter Sports Point Total: 342.00
The Fighting Irish winter sports programs performed best in the nation as a group with this point total.
• Women’s basketball, which won the national title in 2018 under head coach Muffet McGraw, earned 90 points by finishing as national runner-up to Baylor.
• The fencing program (which combines both the men and women) that won it all each of the last two seasons finished third at the National Collegiate Fencing Championships for 85 points. Foil Nick Itkin captured his second individual national title among seven Irish All-Americans.
• For the first time ever the hockey team qualified for the 16-team NCAA Tournament four straight years while winning the Big Ten Championship a second season in a row. It advanced to the Northeast Regional final (Elite Eight) before losing to eventual NCAA runner-up UMass. That earned 60 points.
• The men's indoor track and field program chipped in 52 points with a 20th-place finish at the NCAA Championships, highlighted by a national title from the men's distance medley relay team of Dylan Jacobs, Edward Cheatham, Samuel Voelz and Nuguse.
• The men's and women's swimming and diving programs combined for 55 points in the standings after finishing 36th (31 points) and 41st (24 points), respectively.
Among the 13 possible winter sports, Notre Dame does not offer five: women’s bowling, women’s ice hockey, rifle, skiing and wrestling. Only men’s basketball did not score among the eight other winter sports.
Fall Sports Point Total: 280.00
Notre Dame finished No. 9 in the fall standings by scoring 280 points from four different sports.
• 75 points for a No. 5 finish in football under head coach Brian Kelly. Notre Dame was the lone school in the fall top 10 to also finish in the top 10 in football.
• 73 points in men’s soccer, which advanced to the quarterfinals (Elite Eight) under first year head coach Chad Riley. The program also had two Academic All-Americans in Thomas Ueland (first team) and Jack Casey (second team).
• 70.5 points for a No. 8 finish by women’s cross country, with Anna Rohrer and Jessica Harris earning All-American notice in the national meet.
• 61.5 points for a No. 14 placement in men’s cross country, which also captured the ACC Championship under head coach Matt Sparks.
Notre Dame did not score in volleyball and women’s soccer, and does not have other fall sports included such as field hockey or men’s water polo, where USC earned 100 points for a national title while Stanford received 90 as the runner-up.
Notre Dame had a school-record three consecutive top-10 placements in 2013 (No. 9), 2014 (No. 3, the school’s best showing ever) and 2015 (No. 10).
----
• Talk about it inside Rockne’s Roundtable
• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, Blue & Gold Illustrated.
• Follow us on Twitter: @BGINews, @BGI_LouSomogyi, @BGI_CoachD, @Rivals_Singer and @EJHollandBGI.
• Like us on Facebook.
