FAYETTEVILLE -- In Arkansas, it seems business as usual for the Razorbacks men and women's track and field teams to win the SEC Outdoor Championships and claim another SEC Cross Country/Indoor/Outdoor triple crown.
Away from Arkansas, their peers truly appreciate how remarkably unusual those triple crowns are.
Especially in track, there is nothing routine if the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville's women's program led by Coach Lance Harter completes its third consecutive SEC triple crown while the Coach Chris Bucknam's men's team complete their second consecutive SEC triple when the 3-day SEC Outdoor concludes today in Columbia. S.C.
If an Arkansas program doesn't conclude today with the conference crown, it won't necessarily be because of a bad Arkansas meet but more likely a great meet by another great team.
"They do a power ranking men and women in conferences," Harter said. "And we [the SEC] double the next closest one, which I think is the Pac-12. If you take No. 2 and No. 3 conferences and add them together, the SEC is still dominant. So anytime you can win an SEC title, those are cherished moments."
Based solely on national rankings, it's an upset for Bucknam's men and Harter's women to stand on the top podium at today's post-meet ceremonies.
Nationally among the women, Texas A&M and LSU rank first and fourth with reigning NCAA Outdoor champion Arkansas fifth and Kentucky, Georgia, Florida and Alabama hot on Harter's heels ranked sixth, seventh, eighth, and 10th.
Bucknam's men rank third nationally, trailing No. 1 Texas A&M and No. 2 Florida, the reigning NCAA Outdoor champion, while Georgia, Alabama and LSU rank fourth through sixth.
Conference and national meets have an apples vs. oranges comparisons about them, weighing the depth it takes to win a conference meet vs. the fewer but elite required to win a national meet.
Nevertheless, the SEC's prolifically elite competition makes for a meet about as elite as the NCAA Championships itself.
For instance, this column space Monday riveted on Arkansas Jamaican junior Kemar Mowatt's 49.09 nationally leading the men's 400-meter intermediate hurdles. But the Florida Gators return both NCAA Outdoor 400-meter intermediate hurdles champion and NCAA runner-up Eric Futch and TJ Holmes, respectively.
Men or women, "There's no gimmes in this meet anymore," Harter said.
The only gimme, coaches of both Arkansas staffs said, is coaches from other leagues saying they wished they could spectate this week in Columbia, S.C. They marvel at the SEC combination of elite athletes and depth competing in what Bucknam calls "the meat-grinder" and men's sprints coach Doug Case calls the "true team national championship of men's and women's track.
"I always say this is the true national team championship with the quotations on team," Case added. "The NCAA meet is more who has the best small group of individuals. But when you look at the SEC, it's who has the best track and field team in the nation. Whoever wins the SEC is the real 'team' national champion."
Sports on 05/13/2017