The more things change, the more they stay the same. Following the 2024-25 athletics season, the Ivy League finished as the fifth-strongest conference in Division I according to the Learfield Directors' Cup rankings. It is the eighth consecutive year that the league has finished in the top-six and the Ivy League's best average ranking of all eight schools (68.8) in the 30 years of Directors Cup.
In addition to over 85 nationally-ranked teams, Ivy League programs recorded eight national championships (four team, four individual) throughout the year. Matching the national athletics success was the unwavering commitment to a world-class education — with the league once again leading all Division I conferences in the NCAA Graduation Success Rate and Academic Progress Rate metrics.
Learfield Directors' Cup Rankings (by conference):
1. SEC: 851.27
2. Big Ten: 722.04
3. ACC: 671.93
4. Big 12: 485.33
5. IVY LEAGUE: 406.41
6. Pac-12: 214.63
7. Big East: 183.42
8. Mountain West: 176.41
9. Summit League: 138.78
10. Big West: 130.15
Princeton (No. 32) is the highest-ranked school outside of the "Power 4" conferences while Harvard also garnered a top-35 ranking (No. 34). Seven Ivy League schools finished inside the top-100 of the rankings out of 300+ NCAA Division I schools. It is the eighth-consecutive competitive season where the Ivy League as a whole has finished inside the top-six (also finished at No. 5 in 2019).
The average rating for all eight Ivy schools is 406.41, the highest amongst non-Power 4 conferences. The next highest average rating for a conference is the Pac-12 at 214.63.
2024-25 By The Numbers:
1 - top-ranked conference in NCAA Graduation Success Rate
1 - top-ranked conference in NCAA Academic Progress Rate
5 - fifth-strongest athletics conference in the Learfield Directors Cup
8 - National Champions
8 - multiple-bid sports in NCAA championships (e.g., automatic qualifier plus another Ivy)
88 - Nationally-Ranked Teams
209 - All-Americans
The Ivy League finished the season with eight national championships (four individual and four team). In the fall season, Columbia's Michael Zheng and Harvard's Graham Blanks began the year winning national titles in the same weekend in men's tennis and men's cross country, respectively. A few months later, Penn took home their second-straight Potter Cup as the Quakers' Salman Khalil and Princeton's Zeina Zein also claimed titles. In the spring season, Cornell claimed the men's lacrosse title and Harvard captured the men's lightweight rowing championship for the second-straight season. To end the season, Yale women's rowing won the varsity eight national title.
In addition to the national titles, 2024-25 saw many Ivy League sports earn multiple bids into NCAA Championships. In the fall, men's soccer saw three teams (Cornell, Penn, and Princeton) make the NCAA Tournament. In the winter, three Ivy League women's basketball programs (Columbia, Harvard, and Princeton) earned bids to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in conference history. In the spring, four Ivies earned berths in both the NCAA men's tennis tournament and NCAA women's lacrosse tournament, with three teams advancing to the Elite Eight. In men's lacrosse, the league placed three teams in the NCAA Tournament and concluded another successful season with Cornell winning the league's 11th all-time national championship in the sport.