Sport-by-sport "best year ever" wrapup.

A few people have kicked around the idea that this is the Best Year Ever for Mizzou Sports.  It's easy to only look at the high-profile sports and lose track of the overall picture when making a call like that.  So, Let's take a brief look at each sport to help determine where this season stands.  The best way would probably be to nominate seasons and compare them (may I nominate 1954?), but this is the limit of my abilities:

FALL SPORTS:

Football: Record: 10-4, Big 12 North winners, Alamo Bowl champions.  Final rankings 16/19/21 (ESPN, AP, BCS).

Previous seasons with higher final rankings: ESPN - 7.  AP - 11, BCS - 1

1 National Award Winner (Coffman/Mackey), 2 1st team All Americans.

Better seasons: 2007, 1960, 1969, 1965, 1961, 1941

Cross Country:

Men: 5th Big 12, 5th NCAA Reg., individual: 16th Big 12, 17th Regional, 95th NCAA Championships (top 50%)

Women: last place Big 12, 10th of 27 NCAA Regional.,  Individual: 47th  Big 12, 42nd Regional.

Better seasons: many

Soccer:

13-5 (7-3), 3rd place regular season.  Big 12 Tournament Champions

#4 seed, lost in 2nd round.  Final ranking: #10.

3 All-Big 12 1st teamers.  1 4th team All American

Better seasons:  A case can be made for 2007, but I don't think any other seasons.

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[Finally promoted for Front Page Friday...after about seven hours.  More after the jump.]

WINTER SPORTS:

Men's Basketball:

31-7, 3rd place regular season, Big 12 Tournament Champions

#3 seed, advanced to Elite 8.  Final rankings: 8/9 (ESPN, AP)

Big 12 6th man, Big 12 Defensive POY, Nat'l COY, 1 1st team All-Big 12

Potentially better seasons: 1994, 1992, 1989, 1983, 1976

Women’s Basketball:

Record: 13-17

Big 12 finish: 11th

Academic All-Big 12: 1st team: 3

Previous better seasons: many

Swimming and Diving:

Big 12 - 2nd (Men's), 3rd (Women's)

NCAA 28th (Women's)

1 All-American, 1 Big 12 Champ, 1 Big 12 Runner-up

Previous better seasons:  ???

Wrestling:

Big 12: 3rd.  2 Big 12 individual champs.  3 Big 12 Runners-up, 2 Big 12 3rd place finishers.

NCAAs: 7th Place finish.  5 All-Americans, 1 3rd place finisher, 1 NCAA Champion. 

4 Academic All-Big 12 1st teamers.

Previous better seasons: From my uneducated position, I'd say the last 2 years were better than this year, but not by much.

Gymnastics:

Big 12: 3rd.  NCAA Regionals: 3rd.

National Ranking: 15th

Individuals: Co-Big 12 Gymnast Of The Year, 4 Event Champions (All-Around had 1st and 2nd place finishers).  3 Ladies on All-Big 12 Championship Team.

2 All American Qualifiers.

Previous Better Seasons:  ???

Volleyball

13-17 Overall record, 7-13 conference (11th place).

Better seasons: many

SPRING SPORTS

Golf: 9th Big 12 (Men’s)   Individual: 21st NCAA Regionals

11th Big 12 (Women’s)  Individual: 24th NCAA Regionals

Tennis:

Record: 9-12 (8th Big 12). 

Better seasons: This would imply that MU tennis has ever had a “good” season, which would not be true.

Track & Field (outdoor):

3 individual conference champions

2 individual runners-up

5th place team finish (Men), 7th place women’s finish.

NCAA Regionals are in a week

Better seasons:  Tough to say, but the late 90s were certainly better.

Softball:

Big 12 Tournament Champs (2nd place reg. season).  Top-10 ranking. Yet to play in Super Regional. 

Better seasons: Not more than 1 or 2, certainly, and depending on how this weekend goes, possibly none.

Baseball:

Top-25 ranking.  3rd place regular season

Better season: 1954, a handful of others, but tough to say since Conference Tournament hasn't finished yet.

So, that's:

3 Big 12 Tournament Titles (so far)

10 Individual Big 12 Championships

2 trips beyond the 1st weekend of NCAA Championships.

4 Top-Ten final Rankings (Softball, Basketball, Soccer, Wrestling)

7 Top-25 Final Rankings (Gymnastics, Football, Baseball, plus the 4 above)

Pretty damn impressive year, and Basketball got all the press, but maybe 2007 was better?  Not too many other years would be with those two.