Penn State Wrestling a Bright Spot in Final Learfield Directors' Cup Standings

The Nittany Lions finished outside the Directors' Cup top 20 for the 4th time in six years.

Penn State wrestler Masanosuke Ono lifts the championship trophy at the NCAA Wrestling Championships at Rocket Arena. | Mark Wogenrich | Penn State on SI

Penn State began the 2025-26 with high hopes of winning four national championships and potentially a Learfield Directors' Cup title. The Nittany Lions instead won one national title and finished outside the Directors' Cup top 20 for the fourth time in the last six years.

Penn State finished 21st in the final Learfield Directors' Cup standings for the 2025-26 athletic year, during which the department had hits and misses. Penn State wrestling won its fifth consecutive NCAA wrestling title, the women's hockey team made its first Frozen Four (which it hosted) and both lacrosse teams qualified for NCAAs, with the men winning their first Big Ten Tournament title since 2019.

However, Penn State's 2025-26 athletics calendar produced disappointments as well. The Nittany Lions football team, a preseason national championship contender, went 7-5 after losing its first three Big Ten games that resulted in James Franklin's firing.

Penn State's men and women's basketball teams went a combined 7-31 in the Big Ten, and Carolyn Kieger was fired after seven seasons. Kieger was one of four Penn State coaches who were either fired or did not have their contracts renewed during the 2025-26 season.

And despite finishing 11th in the final rankings, Penn State men's hockey fell in the NCAA regionals after being considered a preseason NCAA title contender.

Texas won its second straight and fifth overall Directors Cup title after claiming NCAA titles in men's swimming & diving, softball and women's rowing. Stanford finished second, followed by UCLA, North Carolina and virginia. Penn State finished sixth in the Big Ten behind UCLA, USC, Michigan, Ohio State and Nebraska.

The Directors' Cup is college's all-sports competition, with a college's 19 highest-scoring sports being counted toward the final standings. In Division I, five "countable" sports apply to every qualified school: baseball, men and women's basketball, women's volleyball and women's soccer. Penn State did not score points from either of its basketball programs or in baseball.

Penn State was in good position entering the spring sports season, sitting in fourth place after a series of strong winter finishes. In addition to the Nittany Lions winning an NCAA wrestling title, six teams finished in the top-20 of their respective sports. Both hockey teams had top-15 finishes.

Penn State wrestler Masanosuke Ono lifts the championship trophy at the NCAA Wrestling Championships at Rocket Arena. | Mark Wogenrich | Penn State on SI

But Penn State generated just 157.5 total points during the spring sports season. By contrast, Texas' spring sports programs totaled 759.5 points, and UCLA's compiled 651.5.

Penn State has not finished in the top 10 of the Learfield Directors' Cup since the 2016-17 season, when it placed eighth. Here's a look a Penn State's most recent Directors' Cup finishes:

• 2025-25: 21st

• 2024-25: 16th

• 2023-24: 23rd

• 2022-23: 15th

• 2021-22: 43rd

• 2020-21: 39th

• 2018-19: 13th

• 2017-18: 12th

• 2016-17: 8th

Members of the Penn State Nittany Lions wrestling team celebrate after the NCAA Wrestling Championship at Rocket Arena. | Aaron Doster-Imagn Images

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