Arkansas Razorbacks Athletes Excel In The Classroom

Fans of the Arkansas Razorbacks may be on edge about performance in the field or on the court but the athletes are succeeding in the classroom.

Arkansas Razorbacks athletics has a lot of fans disappointed with how the football and basketball teams have been performing as of late. Many of us as fans forget that the athletes competing on our favorite team have other responsibilities in the classrooms as well as their role in the athletic competition.

Athletic Director for the University of Arkansas Jeff Longs has made it his goal to raise the academic performance of student-athletes and he hasn’t failed at this mission. The 2016 Fall semester was another example of success for the Razorbacks.

Leading The SEC

For the 14th straight semester, the athletes at Arkansas have an accumulated GPA over 3.0 and the fifth straight over 3.20. In total, 285 student-athletes made the athletic department honor roll with a 3.0 or above.

After all the data from the 2016 Fall semester was in, Arkansas led the league academically. The Razorbacks had 91 student-athletes earn spots on the 2016 Fall SEC Academic Honor Roll. These 91 represent the five fall sports which include Men’s Cross Country, Women’s Cross Country, Football, Men’s Soccer, Women’s Soccer, and Volleyball.

The 2016 Fall Honor Roll is the second-straight year that the Razorbacks had the most football players of any SEC school. Since Bielema became the head coach in 2013, the Razorback football program has the first and second ranked fall honor roll performances.

Arkansas Razorbacks Basketball

The 2015 SEC Fall Honor Roll had 40 football players, which is the most under Bielema, while in 2016 39 players make the list. With 2016 being head coach Bielema’s fourth year, that means that under his tenure, 50 percent of the time his program has led the SEC in academics.

Not only did football lead in their sport but so did the women’s cross country. The team had 19 student-athletes make the list which led the SEC.

Between overall athletics and academics, the University of Arkansas placed 18th nationally in the Fall Directors Cup Standings. The Razorbacks came in first amongst the other schools in the SEC.

It’s hard as fans to see anything other than wins and losses, especially when it seems there’s a whole lot more of the “L”s than the “W”s. Still, it would be nice to see some improvement on the athlete side of the student-athletes performance. Woo pig.