CBS Sports recently compiled an interesting list.
Using a formula we will get into in just a minute, the Kansas Jayhawks were measured as having the nation’s 25th-best year across all “major sports.”
Getting into the weeds, CBS Sports qualified football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, baseball, softball and volleyball.
“The goal wasn't simply to reward championships. It was to measure sustained success across multiple sports, with postseason performance weighted more heavily than regular-season results.”
Here was how the scoring worked.
“Each sport was scored using the following formula: (0.3 × (regular-season win percentage × 100)) + (0.7 × postseason score). That means 30% of a team's score came from regular-season success, while 70% came from postseason performance.”
Bowl eligible/NCAA Tournament appearance were worth 20 points
Bowl win/Round of 32/Regional Finals were worth 30 points
CFP appearance/Sweet 16/Super Regionals were worth 45 points
CFP quarterfinals/Elite Eight/CWS were worth 60 points
CFP semifinals/Final Four/CWS semifinals were worth 75 points
National runner-ups were worth 90 points
National champions were worth 100 points
“A school's final score was the average of its participating sports. Most schools were scored across all six sports, though schools without sponsorship in one or more sports were averaged across the sports they fielded.”
However, it is worth noting that they omitted conference tournaments as the formats varied too much.
Kansas did not do too hot in its two biggest sports
Okay, we know the Kansas Jayhawks are not solely a basketball school. But it is the No. 1 sport everyone thinks about when they name Kansas University.
And last season the Jayhawks’ basketball team was one that ultimately missed the mark. For every eight-game winning streak, there were losses to Cincinnati, West Virginia, Arizona State and UCF that often left more to be desired. Combine that with another exit before the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament and it leans more towards a thumbs down.
Moving on to women’s basketball, Kansas’ record resulted in a decent 22-14 mark, but faults in Big 12, mean the Jayhawks missed out on the postseason for the second consecutive year.
Beyond the hardwood, the mind immediately flips to the gridiron, where things didn’t get significantly better. The Jayhawks missed out on a bowl and were unable to give Jalon Daniels the send-off he and the other seniors deserved.
Volleyball made it to the third round of the NCAA Tournament before falling to the No. 1 Nebraska Cornhuskers 0-3, a stellar season.
This leaves baseball and softball.
This season, both teams defied expectations. First with softball, the Jayhawks went 36-21, a dramatic jump from every season prior under Jennifer McFalls. KU made it all the way to the NCAA Regionals before dropping two games to Michigan, ending their magnificent season.
For Dan Fitzgerald and the KU baseball team, they made it all the way to the NCAA Super Regionals before falling to the Oklahoma Sooners, the eventual College World Series winners.
Postseason runs from Kansas baseball and volleyball helped pick up the slack for what was a slightly below-average year all around.
Now, if Kansas had reached a bowl game, would it mean that there were no inconsistencies that needed to be fixed next year? Of course not, but for an all-around measurement system, this is by no means a bad way to measure overall success.
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