Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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46 AUGUST 2023 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY TODD D. BURLAGE F ollowing an eighth-place finish in the final 2021-22 Director's Cup standings — its best finish since 2017-18 in the competition the compiles results from all varsity sports — backslides from a handful of Notre Dame athletic programs the last school year dropped it to 20th in the final 2022-23 standings. Baseball, ice hockey and men's bas- ketball were just a few of the Irish var- sity sports programs that failed to match the results and success they enjoyed in 2021-22. In fact, Notre Dame finished only sixth among the 15 ACC teams in the Director's Cup standings in 2022-23 after finishing second among the league schools in 2021-22. But it wasn't all doom and gloom for Irish athletics this past school year. Headlined by a third straight national championship from the fencing team and a first-ever national title from the men's lacrosse team, there were plenty of triumphs and highlights. This most recent school year marked the first time that Notre Dame claimed mul- tiple national titles in the same academic year since the Irish fencers and the wom- en's basketball team reached that mile- stone in 2017-18. For the Irish fencers, their championship in March was their 13th na- tional title overall — a school record for the most titles by any athletics program. 2022-23 Directors' Cup Final Standings Rk. School Points 1. Stanford 1,412.00 2. Texas 1,370.50 3. Ohio State 1,170.75 4. Virginia* 1,105.50 5. Florida 1,091.50 6. Tennessee 1,078.75 7. Georgia 1,072.50 8. North Carolina* 1,068.00 9. LSU 1,062.25 10. USC 1,048.00 20. Notre Dame* 884.00 * ACC member schools Other ACC finishers 16. Duke 977.80 17. Florida State 909.25 19. North Carolina State 893.00 32. Louisville 672.80 42. Wake Forest 569.00 44. Syracuse 559.50 49. Miami (Fla.) 480.00 51. Clemson 475.50 52. Pittsburgh 469.00 55. Virginia Tech 443.00 78. Georgia Tech 253.00 105. Boston College 170.00 BANNER YEAR Notre Dame's fencers won their 13th national championship, while men's lacrosse claimed its first The Notre Dame fencers became the first Fighting Irish athletic program to win three straight national titles and now boast a school-record 13 championships. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME ATHLETICS