Lobos lap Mountain West field in final Learfield Directors Cup standings

The 2024-25 school year for UNM Athletics will be remembered for a lot of things.

The school saw a long-time athletic director leave on the eve of the fall sports season starting.

The school was left off the guest list when five defecting Mountain West schools announced they’d be leaving the mid-major conference to start another mid-major conference, calling UNM and the others left behind bottom feeders.

The school’s first-year football coach seemed to revive the program, then left.

The Lobo basketball team completed its rebirth, winning its first Mountain West championship and NCAA Tournament game in more than a decade, then saw its coach, entire coaching staff and its entire roster leave.

And through it all, the Lobos just kept doing one thing: Winning.

Powered by a league-best six conference championships, multiple individual national championships, top 10 national team finishes and and plenty of other success, UNM finished the season ranked 49th in the final Learfield Director’s Cup standings released on Thursday — better than any other Mountain West school by 42 spots, better than any other Group of Five program in the country, the best Group of Five finish in 11 years and better than 23 Power 4 programs competing with Power 4 revenue.

It was UNM’s third Top 50 finish and first since 2012. And included among those schools the Lobos’ 49th-place finish (among 303 schools ranked) were: 72nd ranked Houston, the school UNM’s former AD left for; 104th ranked Utah State, the school UNM’s former football coach left for; and 203rd ranked Xavier, the school UNM’s former basketball coach left for.

“To finish as the top program in the Group of Five is a tremendous accomplishment for our program,” UNM’s new Athletic Director Fernando Lovo said. “It’s not just a tribute to our terrific student-athletes and coaches, but everyone behind the scenes and for our fans too, as they provide such a great advantage for us at home. This coupled with our record academic successes this year has me excited to continue to build our championship culture.”

The finish also happened to mean a nice $7,500 bonus for Lovo, which has a contract that pays that much for either a top finish in its conference (achieved with ease over every other program in the MW) or a Top 50 national finish (achieved with one spot to spare).

In either case, Thursday’s news was welcomed at UNM, even if it was expected, especially after a spring that saw the Lobos make big gains with titles in men’s tennis and both men’s and women’s outdoor track.

While there were three Ivy League schools that are not in the Power 4 that finished ahead of UNM (32 Princeton, 24 Harvard and 44 Cornell), those schools field more sports than does UNM.

UNM outpaced the next closest Group of 5 program by 29 spots (South Florida at 78) and the next closest Mountain West school by 42 spots (Boise Sate tied for 91st).

Mountain West 2024-25 Learfield standings

Sorted by national rank

49 — New Mexico

t91 — Boise State

93 — Colorado State

104 — Utah State

105 — Air Force

119 — Wyoming

121 — UNLV

138 — Fresno State

144 — San Jose State

157 — San Diego State

244 — Nevada

Other notables (geography, future Pac-12 member or future Mountain West member):

75 — Oregon State (Pac-12 member)

99 — Hawaii (Big West in all sports but football, future full MW member)

108 — UC Davis (Big West, future MW member)

137 — Grand Canyon (WAC, future MW member)

137 — Washington State (Pac-12 member)

144 — Gonzaga (WCC, future Pac-12 member)

225 — UTEP (CUSA, future MW member)

263 — New Mexico State (CUSA)