UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The fall sports season is well underway and Penn State has quickly resumed its standing among the nation’s premier athletic programs, tied for the national lead with five top-10 squads.
The Nittany Lions and Stanford are pacing the nation with five teams that are ranked in the top 10 of this week’s polls. Penn State’s nationally ranked teams are: women’s volleyball (2), field hockey (3), football (4), women’s soccer (7) and women’s cross country (9). Stanford’s top-10 squads are: men’s and women’s cross country, men’s and women’s soccer and women’s volleyball.
Penn State’s athletic program, with 800 student-athletes across 31 sports, was ranked No. 8 among the nation’s 65 Autonomy Five institutions in 2016-17, according to Yahoo! Sports. The survey incorporated the final results of the past five Learfield Directors’ Cup rankings. Penn State has finished in the directors’ cup top 10 four times in the past five years, starting with a No. 6 finish in 2012-13, followed by rankings of 5, 8, 20 and 8, in 2016-17.
Last year marked the 12th time in the last 24 years that Penn State has posted a top-10 directors’ cup finish. The only other span when the Nittany Lions had four top-10 placings in five years came from 1998-99 through 2002-03.
Penn State is one of only nine programs nationwide to have finished in the top 25 in all 24 Learfield Directors' Cup final standings.