Ranking the best college sports from CBS Sports
FAYETTEVILLE, Arkansas — The remarkable athletic success of the University of Arkansas continues to garner national recognition. The Razorbacks ranked first in the Southeastern Conference and fifth nationally in CBS Sports’ recently released Top College Sports rankings.
Arkansas was the top-performing SEC athletics program and one of three conference programs in the top 10 in the rankings. The Razorbacks finished with 459.5 points, including 132.5 for football, 146 for men’s basketball, 25 for women’s basketball, 83 for baseball and 73 for women’s soccer.
The rankings were based on rankings during the 2021-22 athletics year, including rankings in football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball and two wild card sports among baseball, softball, volleyball, soccer, gymnastics, lacrosse, hockey and wrestling. Points earned for soccer (x2.5) and men’s basketball (x2) finishes were multiplied as part of the ranking formula.
Coach Sam Pittman and the Razorback football team enjoyed one of the best gridiron seasons in recent history in 2021. Arkansas capped off a remarkable 9-4 season with a 24-10 victory over Penn State in the Outback Bowl. The Razorbacks earned a final national ranking of No. 20 in the USA Today/AFCA Coaches poll.
Coach Eric Musselman and the Razorback men’s basketball team made a deep run in the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year. The Razorbacks won three games in the draw, including a victory over No. 1 Gonzaga in the Sweet Sixteen to advance to the Elite Eight and the Western Regional Finals. It was the first time Arkansas had qualified for the Elite Eight in consecutive seasons since the 1993-94 and 1994-95 campaigns.
Arkansas made a return trip to the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament, having also qualified for the Big Dance in 2020-21. Without a pandemic-shortened 2019-20 campaign, the Razorbacks would have earned three straight NCAA appearances.
Arkansas culminated its 2021-22 season with its 11th College World Series appearance. The Razorbacks hit the road to win an NCAA Regional in Stillwater, Oklahoma and an NCAA Super Regional in Chapel Hill, NC to earn a national championship berth in Omaha, Nebraska. Arkansas finished third in the CWS, losing just one game short of the Championship Series. The Hogs qualified for the College World Series for the third time in the last four full seasons
Arkansas won its third consecutive SEC regular season crown, before advancing to the Elite Eight round of the NCAA Women’s Soccer Tournament for the first time in program history. The program’s playoff record came just short of the program’s first-place finish in the NCAA Final Four, when the Razorbacks fell to Rutgers in a penalty shootout in the Elite Eight game.
Last month, Arkansas finished a program-record seventh in the Learfield Directors’ Cup, winning first place in any program with 19 or fewer sports. The Razorbacks collected eight Southeastern Conference championships and recorded nine national top-10 finishes to beat the program’s previous Directors Cup best finish of eighth in the 2020-21 Track and Field season.
