By R.L. Bynum
North Carolina’s tradition of overall athletics excellence continued as the Tar Heels earned their fifth consecutive top-10 finish in the Learfield Directors’ Cup standings.
UNC’s run to the College World Series and fourth consecutive top-five finish in the NCAA Men’s Golf Championships helped the Tar Heels finish seventh for the eighth top-10 finish in the last nine seasons.
Carolina compiled 1,035.75 points in 18 sports in the all-sports competition that measures NCAA postseason success.
Texas won the title for the third time in four years with 1,377 points. The Longhorns, future ACC school Stanford and UNC are the only schools to win the Directors’ Cup in its 30 years of competition.
Stanford, Tennessee, Florida, Virginia, Texas A&M, UNC, Alabama, UCLA and Notre Dame follow Texas in the final standings. Four SEC programs, three ACC schools, two Pac-12 schools and one Big 10 school finished in the top 10.
It was the 25th time the Tar Heels have placed in the top 10. Only Stanford and Florida (30 each) have more. UNC has produced 25 of the ACC’s 51 all-time top-10 finishes.
Led by National Player of the Year Ryleigh Heck, UNC won the NCAA field hockey championship in the fall to lead Carolina’s scoring with 100 points. First-team All-America outfielder Vance Honeycutt and two-time NCAA regional champion Austin Greaser led baseball and men’s golf, respectively, among five Tar Heel teams to finish fifth in NCAA postseason play along with men’s indoor track and field and men’s and women’s soccer.
ACC champion and three-sport ACC Athlete of the Year Parker Wolfe led men’s cross country to sixth place at nationals, and men’s basketball and women’s tennis placed ninth for nine top-10 programs.
Wolfe added an individual national title in outdoor track in the 5,000 meters. The men’s cross country, indoor and outdoor track teams collected 188.50 points.
Three other Tar Heels teams — women’s basketball, women’s lacrosse and women’s swimming and diving (which featured two-time NCAA diving champion Aranza Vazquez Montaño) — produced top-20 finishes.
Carolina’s average finish in 30 years of the Directors’ Cup is No. 7. Virginia’s average finish of 15th is the next-best of current ACC teams. That will change when Stanford joins the league.
2023–24 Directors’ Cup top 25
2023–24 Directors’ Cup ACC standings
UNC Directors’ Cup finishes
2023–24 7th
2022–23 8th
2021–22 6th
2020–21 4th
2019–20 no competition (pandemic)
2018–19 10th
2017–18 13th
2016–17 5th
2015–16 7th
2014–15 5th
2013–14 14th
2012–13 8th
2011–12 8th
2010–11 6th
2009–10 7th
2008–09 2nd
2007–08 14th
2006–07 3rd
2005–06 4th
2004–05 9th
2003–04 7th
2002–03 8th
2001–02 4th
2000–01 15th
1999–2000 5th
1998–99 17th
1997–98 2nd
1996–97 2nd
1995–96 6th
1994–95 2nd
Photo courtesy of UNC Athletics
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