A national title in a return-to-glory season for women’s volleyball. ANOTHER national championship in wrestling. Impressive Final Four appearances by men’s ice hockey, men’s lacrosse and football.
In several ways, the 2024-25 sports season was elite and memorable for Penn State Intercollegiate Athletics.
In other ways — i.e., the annual Learfield Directors’ Cup standings that measure the overall success of a collegiate sports program — it was a good and occasionally great season under third-year athletic director Pat Kraft.
As announced on Thursday, Penn State finished No. 16 in the final 2024-25 standings, sponsored by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics. The NACDA measures a school’s overall athletic success, counting 19 different sports. Women’s basketball, women’s soccer, women’s volleyball, men’s basketball and baseball each must be included as five of the 19 programs. Penn State has 31 varsity sports, among the most in the nation. Ohio State leads the Big Ten with 36 sponsored sports.
Penn State’s No. 16 ranking is an upgrade over last year’s results, when PSU was No. 23. Still, Kraft & Co. have some ground to cover to crack the upper echelon.
Penn State (893 points) placed fifth among Big Ten schools, behind No. 2 overall USC (1,253.75), No. 5 UCLA (1,149), No. 8 Ohio State (1,032.25) and No. 13 Michigan (928.5). Big Ten members Oregon (18) and Nebraska (21) also finished in the Top 25. Texas was No. 1, followed by USC, Stanford, North Carolina and UCLA. The SEC had the most schools in the Top 25, with 11, while the Big Ten had seven.
PENN STATE POINT SCORERS
Nearly half (441) of Penn State’s 893 points came from its two national champions and three Final Four teams. Three mandatory point-scoring teams, baseball and both basketball squads, did not contribute a point. Here is a scoring breakdown for Penn State:
100 — women’s volleyball, wrestling
83 — men’s lacrosse, men’s hockey
75 — football
73 — women’s soccer, men’s gymnastics
72 — fencing
60 — men’s volleyball, women’s cross country
45.5 — women’s gymnastics
27 — men’s cross country
25 — women’s hockey
16.5 — men’s indoor track & field
LEARFIELD CUP STANDINGS, YEAR-BY-YEAR
Here is where Penn State has finished under Kraft, noting that in 2022-23 perennial Top 5 finishers USC and UCLA were still in the Pac-12 Conference:
2022-23: 15th overall, No. 3 in Big Ten
2023-24: 23rd overall, No. 6 in Big Ten
2024-25: 16th overall, No. 5 in Big Ten
However, Kraft’s three seasons at the helm represent quite an improvement from Penn State’s final two full seasons under Kraft’s predecessor, Sandy Barbour. In her final two seasons as AD, Penn State was ranked a desultory No. 43 in 2021-22 and No. 39 in 2020-21 in the final Learfield standings.
Under Barbour, Penn State’s average Directors’ Cup finish was 20th, with a high-water mark of No. 8 in both 2014-15 and 2017-18. Kraft has averaged an 18th-place finish, while previous Penn State athletic directors Dave Joyner (average of No. 8) and Tim Curley (No. 14.5) fared better. Both Joyner and Curley led Penn State to Top 5 single-season rankings.
Here is where Penn State has ranked annually in the Learfield Directors’ Cup standings beginning in 2002-03, as far back as records are available, with the athletics director for those seasons (year of spring season and standings release date noted):
PAT KRAFT: 16th (2025), 23rd (2024), 15th (2023).
SANDY BARBOUR: 43rd (2022), 39th (2021), Covid (2020), 13th (2019), 12th (2018), 8th (2017), 20th (2016), 8th (2015).
DAVE JOYNER: 5th (2014), 6th (2013), 12th (2012).
TIM CURLEY: 12th (2011), 11th (2010), 19th (2009), 21st (2007), 15th (2006), 20th (2005), 13th (2004), 5th (2003).
