FAYETTEVILLE — The Razorbacks’ strong finish in baseball spurred the University of Arkansas athletic department to a program-best seventh-place finish in the Learfield Directors Cup standings released on Thursday by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics.
Arkansas finished in the top 10 for the second time in school history, just eclipsing last year’s program record eighth-place showing. The Razorbacks were the highest-ranked team among departments which sponsor only 19 sports.
The Learfield Directors Cup assigns scoring for all collegiate sports for both men and women, with a maximum of 100 points for winning a national championship in a given sport.
The Razorbacks won eight SEC titles and posted nine top-10 finishes in NCAA events during the 2021-22 school term, which helped Athletic Director Hunter Yurachek be selected as the FBS Athletics Director of the Year by NACDA. Arkansas won 10 SEC titles during the 2020-21 academic year, with Coach Lance Harter’s women’s indoor track and field squad pulling down the NCAA championship.
Arkansas placed second among SEC teams, trailing fifth-place Florida, which was behind cup winner Texas, Stanford, Michigan and Ohio State.
Florida, Arkansas and No. 9 Kentucky ranked in the top 10 among SEC teams, which placed nine in the top 25. Tennessee was 13th, followed in the SEC by No. 16 LSU, No. 19 Georgia, No. 20 Ole Miss, No. 22 Alabama and No. 25 Texas A&M.
Among other SEC teams, Auburn was 32nd, South Carolina 37th, Missouri 57th, Vanderbilt 66th and Mississippi State 76th.
The Razorbacks’ third-place tie with Notre Dame at the College World Series pushed their point total to 1,050.75 points, good enough to edge out the Fighting Irish (1,026 points) for seventh.
The SEC leader Florida scored 1,180.75 points.
Other top 10 sports for the Razorbacks in the spring were women’s outdoor track and field, softball and men’s golf.
Harter’s women finished sixth at the NCAAs in his penultimate season before handing over the reins to Chris Johnson. Coach Brad McMakin’s men’s golf team placed ninth at the NCAA championships in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Coach Courtney Deifel’s softball team took SEC regular season and tournament titles and tied for ninth nationally with a home super regional loss to Texas.