Rutgers inched its way up the Learfield Director’s Cup Division-1 standings board last year.

The Scarlet Knights made a considerable leap this spring.

Rutgers finished ranked 82nd nationally in the annual competition, according to final 2018-19 school year rankings standings released Friday. The Scarlet Knights finished tied for 107th a year ago.

It is Rutgers’ best finish since its best-ever mark of 54th in the 2006-07 school year. The Scarlet Knights were ranked 104th or worse in seven of the last 11 years prior to this school year. The bounce comes after Rutgers made some competitive strides over the last year, particularly in women’s sports, and saw the overall athletics department winning percentage tick up.

The Learfield Directors' Cup is a joint effort between the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) and USA Today. Points are awarded based on each school’s finish in NCAA Championships in men's and women's basketball, baseball and women's volleyball and up to 15 other sports.

Stanford won the competition for the 25th consecutive season, amassing 1567.75 points to second-place Michigan’s 1272.25 to win in a runaway after capturing six more national titles this school year in men’s golf, men’s gymnastics, women’s swimming, women’s tennis, women’s volleyball and women’s water polo.

Florida was third, Texas fourth and the rest of the top-10 was dominated by the ACC and Pac-12. USC, UCLA, Florida State, Virginia, Duke and North Carolina were Nos. 5-10 in that order. The full results can be found by following this link.

Princeton was the highest-ranking New Jersey school at No. 30, finishing in the top-50 for the 11th straight year. Rutgers was second and Monmouth was the only other in-state school to finish inside the top-200 at No. 110. The Tigers likely would have finished even higher had their undefeated football team been able to compete in the FCS postseason.

Rutgers finished last among Big Ten programs for the fifth time in as many years since joining the conference. But the Scarlet Knights did finish ahead of four other Power 5 conference schools - Boston College (87), Washington State (88), Kansas State (94) and Pittsburgh (137).

The Rutgers programs that scored points in the competition: Field hockey (ninth place, 53 points) and women’s soccer (33rd place, 25 points) in the fall, followed by women’s basketball (33rd place, 25 points) and wrestling (ninth place, 69 points) in the winter and rowing (11th place, 57 points) and women’s track and field (41st place, 30 points) in the spring.

2018-19 BIG TEN STANDINGS:

1-Michigan (2): 1272.25

2-Ohio State (12): 986

3-Penn State (13): 963.50

4-Wisconsin (16): 895

5-Minnesota (20): 813.75

6-Indiana (32): 719.50

7-Iowa (38): 629.50

8-Maryland (40): 588

9-Illinois (43): 556.25

10=Northwestern (45): 526.50

11-Michigan State (47): 526

12-Nebraska (48): 523.25

13-Purdue (55): 463.25

14-Rutgers (82): 259 1-Michigan (2): 1272.252-Ohio State (12): 9863-Penn State (13): 963.504-Wisconsin (16): 8955-Minnesota (20): 813.756-Indiana (32): 719.507-Iowa (38): 629.508-Maryland (40): 5889-Illinois (43): 556.2510=Northwestern (45): 526.5011-Michigan State (47): 52612-Nebraska (48): 523.2513-Purdue (55): 463.2514-Rutgers (82): 259 2018-19 NEW JERSEY STANDINGS:

1-Princeton (30): 722.50

2-Rutgers (82): 259

3-Monmouth (110): 152

4-Fairleigh Dickinson (209): 62

5-Rider (210): 61.5

6-NJIT (263) 28

7-Seton Hall (266): 25

8-Saint Peter’s did not accumulate points

James Kratch may be reached at jkratch@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JamesKratch. Find NJ.com Rutgers Football on Facebook.