Arkansas cracks Top 10 in latest Directors’ Cup Standings
Full Final Winter Directors’ Cup Standings
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – In a quest for its third-consecutive top-10 finish in the Learfield Directors’ Cup, Arkansas has moved to No. 9 in the 2022-23 Learfield Directors’ Cup Final Winter Standings released on Thursday by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of America (NACDA).
Arkansas has 635 points and ranks second among the seven Southeastern Conference programs in the top 25 of the latest standings. The Directors’ Cup tracks the nation’s most successful intercollegiate athletics programs for their performances throughout the year. The Razorbacks have earned top-10 finishes in each of the past two years, including an eighth-place finish in 2020-21 and a seventh-place finish in 2021-22.
The standings released on Thursday included men’s and women’s basketball, women’s bowling, men’s and women’s cross country, fencing, football, women’s field hockey, men’s and women’s gymnastics, men’s and women’s hockey, rifle, skiing, men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s swimming and diving, men’s and women’s indoor track and field, women’s volleyball, men’s water polo and men’s wrestling.
Gymnastics was the latest Razorback sport to add to Arkansas’ Directors’ Cup point total. The Razorbacks earned a berth to the NCAA Regional in Norman, Oklahoma. Arkansas posted a program-best NCAA regional score of 197.275, but did not advance. The Razorbacks earned 53.5 points for their NCAA Regional appearance.
For the first time in its storied history, Arkansas swept both the men’s and women’s national championships at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships. It’s the first sweep of men’s and women’s NCAA titles by any school since 2016 and gave Arkansas a combined 49 NCAA championships in cross country, indoor and outdoor track and field. Each team title earned 100 points in the Directors’ Cup standings for Arkansas.
An impressive weekend of performances by the men’s team resulted in 63 team points and a national team title. The title marked the 21st NCAA Indoor championship and 42nd overall for the Arkansas men’s program. Jaydon Hibbert set a collegiate record on his first and only attempt to win an individual national title in the triple jump, also claiming multiple records, including the Jamaican record, World U20 record and Arkansas school record. Arkansas closed out the meet with a victory in the 4 x 400 relay with a time of 3:02.09.
The Arkansas women, leading by two points over Texas, delivered a world all-time best 4 x 400 relay to secure the fourth NCAA Indoor team title and seventh overall for the program. Britton Wilson claimed the 400m title in an American and collegiate record of 49.48, which ranks second on the all-time world list.
For the third-consecutive season, the Razorback men’s basketball team advanced to the second weekend of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Arkansas, a No. 8 seed, opened the Big Dance with a 73-63 win over Illinois in the first round of the tournament. The Hogs then shocked the bracket by pulling off a dramatic 72-71 upset of No. 1 seed Kansas in the second round. The Hogs advanced to the Sweet 16 for the third year in a row, before falling to No. 4 seed and eventual national champion UCONN in a Sweet 16 matchup in Las Vegas. Arkansas earned 64 points in the Directors’ Cup Standings for its March run.
Arkansas swimming and diving earned 45.5 points with a 28th-place national team finish. The Hogs scored 18 points to clinch the program’s fifth-consecutive top-30 finish at the NCAA Championships.
A return trip to the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight highlighted another outstanding season by Razorback Soccer. Coach Colby Hale’s squad earned a No. 3 seed and won three NCAA Tournament matches (Missouri State, Ohio State and Memphis) at Razorback Field before falling 1-0 at No. 1 seed Florida State, one step shy of the College Cup. Arkansas finished the season 13-4-5 and earned 73 Directors’ Cup points.
For the first time since 2005, Arkansas won a match in the NCAA Volleyball Tournament. Coach Jason Watson led the Razorbacks to their first NCAA Tournament bid since 2013 and defeated Utah State 3-0 in the first round of the draw. It was Arkansas’ first NCAA Tournament win since defeating St. Mary’s (California) in 2005. In the Round of 32, the Hogs secured the first set against No. 3 seed Oregon before dropping the match three sets to one. Arkansas’ return to the tournament netted 50 points in the Directors’ Cup standings.
Coach Sam Pittman and the Razorback football team earned a bowl invitation for the third-straight season. Following a 6-6 regular season, Arkansas defeated Kansas 55-53 in 3 OT in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl in Memphis. The Hogs also qualified for a bowl game in Coach Pittman’s first two seasons at the helm including the Texas Bowl in 2020 and the Outback Bowl in 2021. Arkansas tallied 45 Directors’ Cup points in football.
Arkansas earned a pair of top-25 finishes at the NCAA Cross Country Championships. Coach Lance Harter’s Razorback women’s squad finished tied for 21st, led by senior Isabel Van Camp who finished 48th individually. Arkansas’ men’s team earned a 23rd place finish for Coach Chris Bucknam. Patrick Kiprop earned All-America honors finishing 24th overall. Arkansas earned 53 and 51 Directors’ Cup points, respectively, for the women’s and men’s team finishes.
In 2021-22, Arkansas earned a program record with a seventh-place finish in the Learfield Directors’ Cup. The Razorbacks tallied eight Southeastern Conference championships and recorded nine top-10 national finishes to best the program’s previous Directors’ Cup best finish, eighth, in the 2020-21 athletics season. Arkansas finished in the top 10 of the Directors’ Cup standings for only the second time in school history and ranked No. 1 in the standings among programs with 19 or fewer sports.
In 2020-21, Razorback Athletics turned in one of the most successful years in school history, including a program-best eighth place finish in the 2020-21 Learfield IMG Directors’ Cup. The Hogs won one NCAA title and 10 Southeastern Conference regular season and tournament championships during the academic year.
Arkansas’ previous best finish, prior to 2020-21, was 14th. The Directors’ Cup program has been tracking the success of the nation’s top intercollegiate athletics programs since 1993-94.
