Arkansas Sports 360 - ArkansasSports360.com

7/7/2010 at 5:09pm

Recently we looked at how each sport at the University of Arkansas ranked for the 2009-10 school year. Gymnastics and baseball were strong nationally and led the rankings, while men’s and women’s basketball struggled.

Where do the Razorbacks programs rank when compared to their other peers in Division I athletics? Thanks to the National Association of Collegiate Athletic Directors and their Learfield Sports Director’s Cup, we can tell you.

Arkansas was rated No. 46 overall among 236 programs that “compete” for an all sports trophy. The way it works, points are tabulated in up to 20 sports (10 men’s, 10 women’s) at each school. Points are combined for fall, winter and spring seasons.

Strong showings in winter (like swimming, gymnastics) and spring sports (think baseball and golf, the Razorbacks tallied 539.75 points across all sports.

Winner Stanford accumulated 1508.50 points. Florida finished second and was one of eight SEC schools ranked ahead of the Razorbacks.

Essentially, Arkansas finished in the top 20 percent of Division I schools. Unfortunatley, this was the Razorbacks’ worst finish in at least five years, including 24^th place in 2007-08.

UA athletic director Jeff Long has talked about the importance of developing an all-sports program. He wants to see success beyond football, baseball and gymnastics.

Clearly, there is work to be done.

FYI, Arkansas State was the next highest-ranked in-state college at 199. UALR and UAPB tied at 204.