Penn State athletics is currently sitting in third place in the April 30th standings of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) Director’s Cup. The Director’s Cup is an annual award given to the college or university with the best overall athletic program.

Since its inaugural year, Stanford has won the award 15 of 16 times, and this year looks to be no different. Stanford has 962 points, followed by Ohio State with 813.50 and Penn State with 726.80. Points are calculated by taking the 20 most successful teams from each school (10 men’s, 10 women’s) and assigning them points based on their placing in the NCAA tournament.

Among the teams in the Top 5, Penn State gained the lowest number of points over the winter season with 408, but was bolstered by a successful fall season that included the women’s volleyball team’s third consecutive national championship and the football team’s victory over LSU in the Capital One Bowl.

Unfortunately, the spring season doesn’t look too promising for the Nittany Lions. Of the championships awarded during the spring season, Penn State has realistic hopes of scoring points in just four of them–men’s volleyball, men’s golf, and men’s and women’s track. Assuming no miracle runs, this will echo previous years, where Penn State has had successful fall and winter sports seasons and fallen back in the spring to other schools. The final rankings are released on July 1, following the completion of the Baseball World Series, the last championship of the 2009-2010 seasons.

In the meantime, feel free to check out the full rankings to date.