MORGANTOWN — Despite a seemingly strong athletic school year, WVU’s athletic programs finished in a tie for 50th overall and dropped eight spots in the annual Learfield Directors’ Cup standings.
The final standings, released Tuesday, are a composite ranking of every Division I school based on their finish in NCAA-sanctioned sports for the 2025-26 school year. WVU finished with a total of 530.5 points. Texas won the Cup with 1,322 points, the fifth time the Longhorns have accomplished that feat over the last six years.
WVU tallied 137.50 points for the spring, 224 for the winter and 169 for the fall for its total. The school finished tied with Baylor for 50th place and was also with the Bears for ninth overall in the Big 12. The Mountaineers scored 595 points last year.
Even after falling from last year, the Mountaineers finished ahead of rival Pitt, who came in at 84th, and just edged out Virginia Tech, who was 55th. Penn State finished far ahead of WVU at No. 21 and North Carolina cracked the top five at fourth overall. BYU was the leader of the Big 12 in 25th place.
The Mountaineers’ best finish was 30th in the 2007-08 year.
By looking at just the highlights, WVU had a strong year. The Mountaineers hosted four NCAA tournaments, including baseball, men’s and women’s soccer and women’s basketball.
Baseball hosted a regional and, for the first time, a super regional. Both were in front of sold-out crowds, and the Mountaineer fans set an attendance record in the super regional against Cal Poly. WVU headed to the College World Series for the first time in school history and made it all the way to the national semifinals. Baseball was awarded 83 points and finished No. 4 overall in the final D1 Baseball top 25 poll.
Women’s basketball had a similar season, hosting an NCAA regional for the first time in decades. The regional drew massive crowds, but couldn’t make it out of the second round, losing to Kentucky, even with the large home crowd. WVU won the Big 12 tournament, which helped tack on some points for 50.
Both men’s and women’s soccer couldn’t make too much noise in their respective conference tournaments, but both hosted and won at least one game in the NCAA tournament. Both teams scored 50.
Other teams had strong seasons, like the rifle team winning the national championship, which was the highest-scoring sport at 100 points, wrestling being ranked in the top 25 (50.5) and men’s basketball didn’t have too much of a drop-off, being .500 in the Big 12, but was one of the many sports to score 0 points. Golf received 28 points for finishing 43rd overall and women’s track and field tallied 26.5 this spring, helping, with baseball, as the three sports to score for the spring. Women’s cross-country received 69 for a ninth-place finish at the NCAA championships.
There were highlights, but there were some drop-offs and poor showings from other sports. Football had a drop-off, posting its worst season in recent history, finishing 4-8 and receiving 0 points. In the last year of Neal Brown, WVU wasn’t much better, but still, 6-7 adds a couple more points. Other sports struggled, like women’s tennis, women’s volleyball, men’s and women’s swimming and women’s rowing, women’s gymnastics, who all received 0 points this spring.
