West Virginia Mountaineers Earn Best Director's Cup Finish In Over A Decade

Sep 9, 2023; Morgantown, West Virginia, USA; West Virginia University Athletic Director Wren Baker talks to a West Virginia State Trooper during the third quarter against the Duquesne Dukes at Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ben Queen-Imagn Images
Sep 9, 2023; Morgantown, West Virginia, USA; West Virginia University Athletic Director Wren Baker talks to a West Virginia State Trooper during the third quarter against the Duquesne Dukes at Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ben Queen-Imagn Images | Ben Queen-Imagn Images

The West Virginia Mountaineers are thriving in the college athletics world.

WVU offers 17 NCAA varsity sports in total, and the Mountaineers are finding ever-increasing success across the board in multiple sports. Recently, the results were announced for the Learfield Directors' Cup, issued each season by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) to the top athletic department at the Divsion 1 level based upon finishes in each sport's NCAA Championship.

The Mountaineers came in 42nd overall in the final 2025-2026 Directors' Cup standings, which might not seem impressive to a ton of fans. However, it is nine spots ahead of the Mountaineers' finish in 2024-2025, and also marks the school's best finish in the standings since they turned in a 40th-place finish well over a decade ago in 2010-2011.

The finish also marks the fifth-best for the school in this history of the Directors' Cup -- in addition to the 40th place finish 14 years ago, the Mountaineers turned in a school-best 30th-place finish in 2007-08 and also finished 37th in 2009-10, 41st in 1997-98, and 42nd in 2024-25. WVU also ranked sixth among the 16 Big 12 schools in the final standings -- BYU had the highest finish in the conference at 25th, while Oklahoma State, Arizona State, TCU, and Texas Tech also came in ahead of the Mountaineers.

It goes to show the impressive efforts put into the school's athletics by WVU Athletic Director Wren Baker, who has personally hired two head coaches in baseball (Steve Sabins) and women's basketball (Mark Kellogg) who greatly contributed to the Directors' Cup finish by taking their programs on NCAA Tournament runs.