The University of North Carolina finished in eighth place in the final Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup standings for 2011-2012.
The Directors’ Cup gives points based on final rankings in each Division I sport and riding a men’s soccer national title and national title game appearance by the field hockey team, UNC racked up 1000.50 points.
Stanford took first place with 1448.25 points and Florida State was the only other ACC school in the top-10, coming in fifth with 1061 points.
The Tar Heels won the Directors’ Cup in its inaugural year, 1994, but have yet to repeat despite finishing as the runner-up four times. UNC has been among the top-10 finishers 10 times in the last 11 years.
Only Stanford, Florida and UCLA have more top-10 finishes than UNC.
North Carolina had nine programs finish in the top-10 of their respective sport this year: men’s soccer (1st), field hockey (2nd), men’s basketball (5th), women’s lacrosse (5th), men’s lacrosse (9th), women’s soccer (9th), men’s tennis (9th), women’s tennis (9th) and women’s golf (10th).
Seven other programs finished in the top-25: men’s swimming (14th), baseball (17th), softball (17th) volleyball (17th), fencing (19th) women’s swimming (19th) and gymnastics (25th).
