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The Daily Tar Heel

UNC finishes 13th in Learfield Directors Cup

Men's soccer celebration

The North Carolina men's soccer team celebrates after defeating Fordham, 2-1, and advancing to its second consecutive college cup on Dec. 2 at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary.

After fielding many competitive teams this year, UNC finished 13th in the 2017-18 Learfield Sports Directors Cup, its 19th consecutive finish in the top-15. 

The Directors Cup is designed to measure the overall quality of college athletic programs across the country by awarding points for team performances in postseason play. Schools submit the postseason resumes of up to 19 of its best programs and receive scores so programs can be measured up against one another.

The teams a school submits are mostly up to its own discretion, though everyone is required to include baseball, volleyball and men's and women's basketball for equal representation. Ideally, this system gives everyone a level playing field so that historically good programs in just one sport don't overpower schools with solid teams across the board. 

This year, Stanford — the only other school to win the Cup besides North Carolina — won it for the 24th consecutive year with 1,442 points. Its score was more than 100 points in front of the next closest school. The Tar Heels, further down the list, came in a substantial distance away from Penn State in 12th place, but only 4.5 points ahead of Alabama in 14th. 

The Tar Heels’ finish was boosted by the strong finishes of men’s soccer, field hockey and women’s lacrosse — all placing third in the country for 83 points a piece. Baseball’s fifth place finish in the College World Series, women’s soccer’s Sweet Sixteen run and the tennis teams' respective ninth place finishes were also strong contributions.

The score was high on the board, but UNC experienced a backslide of eight spots from a year ago, when the school finished fifth in the standings. A national championship in men’s basketball and the deep runs of field hockey, men’s soccer and women’s soccer that year propelled the school toward the top. 

Those kinds of marquee finishes were missing this time around, but it wasn't quite the school's lowest finish ever. The lowest place for UNC since the award began in 1994 was 17th in 1999 — its only year ever to be outside the top-15. 

Florida State (ninth) and Duke (11th) were the only ACC schools to finish above North Carolina, while N.C. State, Virginia and Notre Dame rounded out the conference in the top-25. 

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