Eric Musselman raves about the growth of Arkansas athletics

Eric Musselman is excited about where Arkansas athletics is at right now. The Razorbacks basketball coach is coming off of his second straight Elite Eight appearance, but the success doesn’t end with his team.

The Arkansas soccer team also made the Elite Eight. The baseball team made an appearance in the College World Series. The softball team won its first SEC Tournament title and hosted a Super Regional. Even the football team, which endured a program-record 20-game SEC losing streak from 2017 to 2020, is finding its footing under Sam Pittman. The Razorbacks went from 3-7 in Pittman’s inaugural season to 9-4 this past year, claiming their first bowl victory since 2015.

With so much success happening all around him, Musselman and others in the athletic department have come up with their own way to describe what is taking place in Fayetteville.

“I tweeted something out the other day and we talk to recruits about it all the time,” the coach said. “It hasn’t really caught on except in our own office, but we call it ‘The Campus of Champions.’ When we talk to recruits, we talk about the Jones Center and when you’re eating in there and look over and see the women’s track team. You’re talking about some of the best track athletes in the world. You look over and see a football player and nine wins, a baseball player and they’re playing in Omaha.”

Since Eric Musselman arrived in 2019, Arkansas basketball has won at least 20 games every season. The Razorbacks have also seen their win total climb each year, finishing with a 28-9 record this past season. Things are only continuing to look up for the future, as the team signed the No. 2 recruiting class in the country this offseason according to On3’s Team Rankings.

That kind of growth isn’t lost on Musselman. Prior to his arrival, Arkansas basketball had not made an Elite Eight appearance since 1995. And his team isn’t the only one to experience such a turnaround. The football, softball and soccer teams are all undergoing something similar.

It has been a while since both the Razorbacks’ football and men’s basketball teams have competed on a national level, but things are slowly starting to change in Fayetteville. If Musselman’s endorsement is any indication, we could be looking at Arkansas as one of the most well-rounded athletic programs in the country before long.

“It’s amazing what has transpired just in the short time that I’ve been here,” Musselman said. “Some of those programs like men’s and women’s track have won at a high, high level for probably before I was even born. Then there’s others like what the soccer team’s done. Coach (Colby) Hale has done an incredible job. What the softball team has done with Courtney (Deifel). It’s across the board. You can feel it with all the programs.”