CLEVELAND, Ohio – In the first release of the Learfield Directors' Cup standings of the 2024-25 academic year, St. Olaf College was ranked 27th out of 425 active NCAA Division III athletics programs, as announced recently.

After getting points from its men's cross country, women's cross country, and men's soccer programs, St. Olaf checked in at No. 27 with 177.50 points in the initial release of the Learfield Directors' Cup, which is the national all-sport competition. The initial release included totals through the fall-sport season, except for the final game of the NCAA Division III Football Playoffs.

St. Olaf's 177.50 points marked the fourth consecutive fall that St. Olaf has earned over 175 points, been ranked in the top 30 nationally, and led all Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) institutions. The second-highest-ranking MIAC institution was Carleton College, which tied for 54th with 106 in the fall.

Men's cross country earned 70.5 points by placing eighth at the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships in late November, marking the program's highest national finish since 2015 and its third consecutive top-15 performance as a team. Women's cross country added 57 points to St. Olaf's total with a 17th-place national result for its fourth top-20 finish in a row, while men's soccer contributed 50 points by advancing to the second round of the NCAA Division III Men's Soccer Championship in its fourth consecutive national appearance.

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.