Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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74 PRESEASON 2025 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY TODD D. BURLAGE A widespread performance slip- page, coupled with disappoint- ing postseason exits by many Fighting Irish athletics pro- grams, made the 2024-25 collective sports season the worst Notre Dame has suffered in at least 30 years. The men's and women's lacrosse teams fell short of expectations. The Irish hockey team struggled during the final season under legendary head coach Jeff Jackson. And, after finishing as na- tional runner-up in 2023, the Notre Dame men's soccer team failed to even make the NCAA Tournament in 2024. All this while the volleyball and men's basketball programs continued rebuild- ing. The disappointing results led to a 35th-place finish for Irish athletics in the final Learfield Directors' Cup stand- ings, its worst finish since this cumula- tive athletics competition was intro- duced in 1993-94. The Directors' Cup compiles results from all varsity sports, combines them, and uses those scores to rank overall athletic achievement for every school in the country. For perspective, Notre Dame finished only 17 points ahead of 36th-place Harvard in the 2024-25 Director's Cup standings. Notre Dame finished sixth in 2023-24, its best place- ment since it was third in 2013-14. Despite the poor overall Directors' TOP HEAVY Last year marked a down year overall for Fighting Irish athletics, but football was a big bright spot Kicker Mitch Jeter's 41-yard field goal late in the fourth quarter against Penn State in the Orange Bowl extended the Irish's win streak to 13, gave them their second major bowl win in eight days after none in the previous 31 years, and put them in the national championship game for the first time since 2012. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER 2024-25 DIRECTORS' CUP FINAL STANDINGS Rk. School Points 1. Texas 1,255.25 2. Southern Cal 1,253.75 3. Stanford* 1,251.00 4. North Carolina* 1,195.25 5. UCLA 1,149.00 6. Tennessee 1,078.00 7. Florida 1,072.00 8. Ohio State 1,032.25 9. Oklahoma 1,017.20 10. Duke* 1,010.00 12. Virginia* 966.00 20. NC State* 854.75 24. Cal* 819.75 28. Florida State* 776.00 35. Notre Dame* 691.50 37. Louisville* 648.50 41. Wake Forest* 611.00 45. Virginia Tech* 536.00 47. Clemson* 524.25 55. Miami (Fla.)* 472.50 61. Syracuse* 407.00 66. Boston College* 377.50 70. SMU* 321.75 71. Georgia Tech* 320.00 74. Pittsburgh* 312.00 * ACC schools