BYU Produced Nation’s Top Athletic Department During Fall Season
Jan 13, 2022, 11:23 AM
BYU football head coach Kalani Sitake prior to the Cougars game against USC on November 27, 2021, (Jaren Wilkey/BYU Photo)
(Jaren Wilkey/BYU Photo)
PROVO, Utah – BYU Athletics can claim to be the number one athletic department in the country, and the data backs it up.
The 2021-22 Learfield Directors’ Cup Standings were released on Thursday to conclude the fall sports season. BYU checks in at No. 1 in the nation.
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— BYU Cougars (@BYUCougars) January 13, 2022
The Learfield Directors’ Cup is considered the “crowning achievement in college athletics.” Learfield Cup awards points to athletic departments based on their finishes in NCAA Championships.
The No. 1 ranking for BYU is the best in school history. BYU accumulated 368 points during the fall season, with the most coming from women’s soccer and cross country programs. Each produced 90 points. Women’s Soccer reached the College Cup Final match against Florida State and Women’s Cross Country was also a national runner-up.
“It was an incredible fall season at BYU,” said BYU Athletic Director Tom Holmoe. “A huge congratulations to our resilient, tough, committed, passionate, fun-loving student-athletes and coaches for all that they were able to accomplish. To be No. 1 in the nation in the standings at this point in time, is something for all of Cougar Nation to be proud of.”
BYU’s fall season included a perfect month of November, where no sport on campus lost a game or a match the entire month.
The football program held up their end and produced 52 points in the Learfield Directors’ Cup standings. BYU football finished with a 10-3 record and finished 22nd overall in the Directors’ Cup standings.
The BYU Athletic Department is one of only two universities outside of power conferences to appear in the Top 25 of the standings. Harvard from the Ivy League was second at No. 18.
BYU athletics edged out Notre Dame from the ACC, who accumulated 360 points in the fall season.
The winter sports standings will be released in April, adding to the existing 368 points that BYU has built up to date.
2021-22 Learfield Directors’ Cup Division I Fall Standings
1. BYU (WCC) – 368
2. Notre Dame (ACC) – 360
3. Michigan (Big Ten) – 354
4. Wisconsin (Big Ten) – 339.50
5. Penn State (Big Ten) – 298
6. North Carolina (ACC) – 295.50
7. Washington (Pac-12) – 283
8. Arkansas (SEC) – 277.50
9. Florida State (ACC) – 259
10. Pittsburgh (ACC) – 248
Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for sports.ksl.com and host of the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (Saturday from 12–3 p.m.) on KSL Newsradio. Follow him on Twitter: @Mitch_Harper.
