According to Tennessee Athletics, The most extraordinary year of success across all 20 sports in Tennessee athletics history finished with UT finishing third in the final 2023-24 LEARFIELD Directors’ Cup standings, the National Association of College Directors of Athletics (NACDA) announced on Wednesday.
It’s continued at a torrid pace since the arrival of Vice Chancellor/Director of Athletics Danny White in January of 2021. The Big Orange have steadily ascended in the Directors’ Cup standings over the last four years since the competition was canceled in 2019-20. Tennessee finished 26th in 2020-21, 13th in 2021-22 and sixth a year ago. Before last season’s No. 6 finish, Tennessee last posted a top-10 Directors’ Cup finish in 2006-07 when it landed at a previous-best No. 7.
All 20 sports at Tennessee reached the postseason (NCAAs and a bowl game) for the first time in school history en route to UT’s record third-place national finish. Tennessee was one of two Power Five schools to have every sport reach the postseason in 2023-24. With 1,217 total points this year—accumulated thanks to scoring contributions of at least 25 points by all 20 teams—Tennessee finished first among SEC schools. Six sports finished in the top five in 2023-24, led by baseball’s first national championship. In total, 11 finished sports ranked in the top 10 during the record-setting run during the 2023-24 academic year.
This latest achievement in competitive excellence comes just a month after Tennessee won its third consecutive SEC All-Sports title. In doing so, it became only the second school to win three SEC All-Sports titles.