ATHENS — Despite missing the postseason in baseball and coming up short of expectations in the track and field championships, Georgia finished the 2022-23 academic year with its fourth-best ranking in school history in the Learfield Directors’ Cup standings.
Thanks to top-20 finishes in 17 of their 20 NCAA-sanctioned sports, the Bulldogs finished No. 7 in the annual all-sports rankings. That represents Georgia’s highest ranking since 2005. That ranked third among SEC teams this year.
Florida was top among SEC teams at No. 5, followed by No. 6 Tennessee, Georgia and No. 9 LSU. No other conference placed more than two schools in the top 10. Other SEC schools ranked in the top 25 were No. 12 Alabama, No. 13 Arkansas, No. 18 Kentucky, and No. 24 Texas A&M.
Stanford returned to the top spot after bowing to Texas the past two years. It’s the 26th all-sports title for the Cardinal. Ohio State was third and Virginia, led by UGA alum Carla Green Williams, was fourth.
“This is a tremendous accomplishment by our entire athletic department,” UGA Athletics Director Josh Brooks said. “I am so proud of our student-athletes, coaches, and teams, who had record-breaking accomplishments during the 2022-23 athletics season. From championships to our best-ever GPA, to community service and scholar-athlete recognitions, Bulldog student-athletes represented the best of the best in college athletics this season. I want to thank everyone who worked hard in achieving this goal.”
Though not part of the cup standings, the Bulldogs recorded a school-best cumulative GPA of 3.19.
It was the 12th top-10 finish in the cup standings for Georgia, which remains one of only nine departments nationwide to maintain at least a top-25 ranking each year since 2000, joining Stanford, UCLA, Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, Ohio State, Texas, and USC.
UGA’s best finishes were No. 2 in 1999, No. 3 in 2001 and No. 5 in 2004.
Of Georgia’s 21 athletic teams, 17 finished in the top 20 of their sports’ respective rankings during the 2022-23 season, while an impressive nine ended in the top 10. UGA equestrian finished sixth, but it is not recognized as a sanctioned sport by the NCAA or Learfield.
The Bulldogs were paced by their national championship in football, which was the second title in a row of coach Kirby Smart’s program. Georgia also recorded top-10 finishes in men’s indoor track and field (No. 2), women’s tennis (3), men’s tennis (5), women’s indoor track (5), men’s outdoor track (7), softball (9) and women’s outdoor track (10).
UGA’s All-Time Directors’ Cup finishes
1994 – 21st
1995 – 14th
1996 – 11th
1997 – 28th
1998 – 7th
1999 – 2nd
2000 – 11th
2001 – 3rd
2002 – 8th
2003 – 15th
2004 – 5th
2005 – 7th
2006 – 9th
2007 – 12th
2008 – 10th
2009 – 18th
2010 – 20th
2011 – 20th
2012 – 18th
2013 – 10th
2014 – 16th
2015 – 14th
2016 – 15th
2017 – 15th
2018 – 8th
2019 – 21st
2020 – COVID
2021 – 10th
2022 – 19th
2023 – 7th
You can find the complete standings HERE.
