The Aurora University Athletic Department finished the 2024-2025 academic year with the second-best showing all-time in the Learfield Sports Directors' Cup Division III standings. The Spartans finished 51st out of more than 420 Division III athletic programs around the United States. The Learfield Sports Directors' Cup is a comprehensive ranking of intercollegiate athletic departments based on their participation in NCAA Championship events. Once again, AU was the top Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference school in the final Learfield Sports Directors' Cup Division III standings. 

Complete 2024-2025 Learfield Sports Directors' Cup Standings

The Spartans got off to a strong start to the year with a strong postseason showing from the AU football team scoring 50 points. In the winter, AU added 82 points with men's hockey scoring 60 points and women's indoor track and field tallying 22. In the spring, AU racked up 216 points through the participation and success of the women's golf, men's golf, women's outdoor track and field, men's lacrosse and men's volleyball programs in the field at NCAA Division III Championship events. 

"The finish in this years Learfield Cup is in direct correlation to the hard work and effort put forth by AU student-athletes, coaches and staff," said Vice President for Athletics Jim Hamad. "As proud as we are of the athletic success, the community service and academic achievement of the over 700 AU student-athletes is what truly defined the success over the past year." 
 
The 2024-2025 season saw AU with 16 programs have teams or individuals compete at the NCAA Division III Championship level. AU had six teams (women's golf, men's golf, football, men's hockey, men's volleyball and men's lacrosse) win conference championships.

For the 11th consecutive year of Learfield awarding Director's Cup points, AU led the way among Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) programs and was the only program to finish in the top 70, finishing 51st with 348 points. St. Norbert College had 287 points in 71st place, following by Illinois Institute of Technology and Wisconsin Lutheran College each had 89 points to finish in 186th place. Concordia University Wisconsin finished 196th with 81.5 points, Milwaukee School of Engineering was 199th with 75 points, Edgewood finished 239th with 50 points and Marian University had 45 points in 261st place.

The point total in 2024-2025 marked the second-best finish all-time for the Spartan Athletic Department, a ninth consecutive finish for AU in the top 100 and 11th all-time. AU had previous best finishes in 2014-2015 (50th with 329.10 points), 2023-2024 (331.5 points - 55th place), 2017-2018 (61st with 299 points), 2016-2017 (68th place with 289.75 points), 2017-2018 (75th place with 258.0 points), 2021-2022 (76th with 235.5 points), 2015-2016 (78th place with 201.25 points), 2023-2024 (89th with 222.50 points), 1997-1998 (94th with 70 points), 2004-2005 (96th with 164 points) and 2009-2010 (102nd with 185.5 points). 

The Learfield Directors' Cup was developed as a joint effort between the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) and USA Today. Points are awarded based on each institution's finish in up to 18 sports in Division III -- nine women's and nine men's.