Notre Dame To Vault Into Top 10 In Learfield Directors’ Cup Rankings
After a subpar fall sports season in which Notre Dame finished No. 35 in the NACDA Learfield Directors’ Cup standings, the Fighting Irish have rebounded with a strong campaign in winter sports to move up to what should be No. 9 at the end of this week.
The fall sports campaign ends with the national title game in the College Football Playoff, while the winter sports will conclude with women’s bowling April 20 and men’s and women’s gymnastics April 27 — with neither sport offered at Notre Dame. The top 10 results in both men’s and women’s sports (20 sports total) for each school is calculated in the final results.
Learfield will not officially release the next standings until this Thursday (April 13), but based on our calculations, Notre Dame will vault all the way to No. 9 after the second of three sports periods during an academic calendar year.
At the conclusion of the fall sports campaign Jan. 12, Notre Dame stood No. 35 with 155 points. The total came from 66 points from women’s cross country, which placed No. 11 nationally; 64 points from men’s soccer, which advanced to the Sweet 16; and 25 points from women’s soccer, which advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
The previous year the Irish had accumulated 275 points in the fall, or 120 more than this season.
This winter significantly bolstered Notre Dame’s standing among the 246 Division I college teams (FBS and FCS) who have scored points so far. During the winter campaign Notre Dame tallied what should be a whopping 444 points that would give it 599 total:
• 100 points for winning the combined men’s and women’s fencing national title.
• 83 points in men’s hockey for advancing into the Frozen Four (per the scoring chart, in 16-team NCAA Tournament brackets the third- and fourth-place teams receive 83 points).
• 73 points in women’s basketball for moving on to the Elite Eight, where it lost by one point to Stanford.
• 50 points in men’s basketball, which moved into the second round of the NCAA Tournament and finished No. 20 in the final USA Today poll, after the tourney.
During the winter, Notre Dame also picked up 49 points from men’s swimming, 40.5 points from women’s indoor track, 29 points in women’s swimming and 19.5 in men’s indoor track.
Per usual, Stanford is easily the leader with 962.25 overall points. The Cardinal has won the Cup every year since 1995, with North Carolina capturing the first such competition in 1994.
The Tar Heels are the lone ACC school ranked ahead of Notre Dame, while the Big Ten is well represented from Nos. 2-5. The warm-weather schools often make their bigger jump during the spring sports season.
Unofficially, here is what the top 10 should look like this Thursday, with total points through the fall and winter:
1. Stanford — 962.25
2. Wisconsin — 692.00
3. Ohio State — 664.00
4. Michigan — 661.25
5. Penn State — 647.25
6. North Carolina — 625.0
7. USC — 615.50
8. Kentucky — 601.00
9. Notre Dame — 599.0
10. Oregon — 560.00
In the final standings, the Fighting Irish finished No. 17 last year after a school-record three consecutive top-10 showings in 2013 (No. 9), 2014 (No. 3, the best 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,
@BGI_MattJones, @BGI_DMcKinney and @BGI_CoreyBodden.
• Like us on Facebook