CLEVELAND, Ohio – After recording its highest-ever fall point total, St. Olaf College was 16th out of over 430 NCAA Division III institutions as the final LEARFIELD Directors' Cup fall standings were released on Thursday.
Highlighted by a national championship in men's soccer, St. Olaf earned 246.5 points from four sports in the fall to rank 16th out of 438 NCAA Division III institutions. The 246.5-point total marked the first time St. Olaf gained over 200 points in the fall season and gave the Oles the highest point total among Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) members for the third fall in a row.
The top-20 national finish for the fall was the fifth for St. Olaf in the history of the LEARFIELD Directors' Cup and the 16th-place performance was tied for its second-highest fall placement. St. Olaf was tied for 14th after the fall in 1996-97, also placed 16th in both 1995-96 and 2015-16, and was 19th in 2022-23.
Men's soccer contributed 100 points to St. Olaf's total after winning its first national championship this fall to deliver St. Olaf's second NCAA team national title. Men's cross country added 63 points by virtue of its 13th-place finish at the NCAA Division III Championships, which was the program's highest national placement since 2015. Women's cross country logged its third-straight top-20 national showing to earn 58.5 points with a 16th-place result, while volleyball picked up 25 points after qualifying for the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019.
The LEARFIELD Directors' Cup is a program that honors institutions maintaining a broad-based program, awarding points based on each institution's national finish in the NCAA Championships. The program was started in 1993-94 by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) and
USA Today and expanded to include NCAA Division II, III, and the NAIA in 1995-96. Eighteen total teams can contribute points in the final standings, four of which must be men's and women's basketball and men's and women's soccer.
St. Olaf LEARFIELD Directors' Cup Top-Five Fall Finishes - By Points
| Rank |
Academic Year |
Place |
Points |
| 1. |
2023-24 |
16th |
246.5 |
| 2. |
2022-23 |
19th |
196.0 |
| 3. |
2015-16 |
16th |
191.0 |
| 4. |
2021-22 |
26th |
184.0 |
| 5. |
2013-14 |
30th |
148.0 |
St. Olaf LEARFIELD Directors' Cup Top-Five Fall Finishes - By Place
| Rank |
Academic Year |
Points |
Place |
| 1. |
1996-97 |
120.0 |
t-14th |
| t-2. |
1995-95 |
114.5 |
16th |
|
2015-16 |
191.0 |
16th |
|
2023-24 |
246.5 |
16th |
| 5. |
2022-23 |
196.0 |
19th |
