Will Hogs Join Duke, Ohio State & Arizona State to Hit Rare “Player of the Year” Trifecta?

One opposing SEC coach called  Andrew Benintendi the nation’s best college baseball player. Courtesy: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc.

In the early 1990s, Arkansas joined the SEC and the conference began awarding a baseball player of the year award to complement already established football and basketball MVP titles. Since then, the conference has soared to lofty heights, becoming arguably the NCAA’s most powerful organization. Much of that has to do with stretches of dominance by Alabama, LSU and Florida in football; Arkansas, Kentucky, Florida in basketball and the likes of LSU (five national titles 1993-2009) and South Carolina in baseball.

Many of these programs have produced multiple players of the years in various sports, yet no one school has yet been able to hit a POY trifecta by having a male player win the ultimate individual honor in each major team sport in one calendar year.

That may soon change.

In 2015, the Razorbacks athletic department has a chance make SEC history by sweeping these honors. The push started earlier this spring with sophomore Bobby Portis winning basketball SEC Player of the Year. Then, on Monday, sophomore Andrew Benintendi was announced as SEC baseball’s player of the year. Benintendi, of course, has helped spearhead the Hogs’ surge from a 1-5 start in SEC play to 18-7 finish including two wins so far in the SEC Tournament. The outfielder from Cincinnati, Ohio leads the nation in slugging percentage (.760) and ranks first in home runs. “He’s probably the best player in college baseball right now,” Tennessee coach Dave Serrano told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s Bob Holt.

I write more about this unique record in the context of SEC sports and the Razorbacks’ upcoming football season for Sporting Life Arkansas, but here I want to look beyond the SEC.

Specifically,  how many times has a school pulled off this one-year POY trifecta among all major conferences?

Three times – sort of.

Here they are:

1994 Duke

In basketball, Grant Hill secured ACC player of the year and first team All-American honors. But thanks to the Razorbacks, “national champion” was one honor he didn’t grab for the third straight year. Ryan Jackson took home ACC POY honors after setting a single-season school record with 22 home runs. In football, bruising back Robert Baldwin won it after helping lead Duke to its highest national ranking in 23 years.

Baldwin was the last Duke player to win ACC player of the year honors in football, but was the 10th such POY in school history (which is a surprisingly high number to my 33-year-old self. It reflects how un-dominant Florida State once was).

2000 Arizona State 

Eddie House wrapped up a career as the Sun Devils’ all-time leading scorer by becoming the school’s first Pac 10 player the year. He was coached by future Razorback assistant Rob Evans. Then, Casey Myers won the first of two POYs in baseball. Finally, Adam Archuleta shared defensive POY honors after racking up 127 tackles.

(In tallying this list, I only considered winner of football offensive or defensive POY awards – not those who won special teams or freshman-related awards. Additionally, before 1999, what’s now the Pac 12 awarded two POY awards – one for its north division, another for its south division. I consider this to be some serious accolade-al weak sauce, and wanted no part ladling it on top of the results.)

2006 Ohio State 

In basketball, power forward Terence Dials won the Big 10 POY while teaming with former Razorback J.J. Sullinger. In baseball Buckeye Ronnie Bourquin did the deed, and in football it was Troy Smith winning almost every individual quarterback and/or offensive award under the sun – including an unfair first-place Heisman Trophy finish over sophomore Darren McFadden.

Fun Factoids!

1. In these team sports, occasionally, conference co-players of the year honors happen. Sharing is life, after all. What’s truly unique, however, is the bestowing of tri-player of year laurels. Indeed, it only happened once in all major conference Division 1 history.

That was in 2002, in baseball, when the Big Ten POY award was given to Minnesota’s Luke Appert, a second baseman and two outfielders: Indiana’s Kennard Jones and Michigan State’s Bob Malek.

2. When Benintendi was announced as SEC Player of the Year, it marked the 20th time in major conference* Division I history one athletic department had bagged both its conference basketball and baseball POY awards in the same calendar season.

*SEC, Big 10, Big 12, Pac 12 and ACC. I also threw in the Big East for history’s sake. Unfortunately, I didn’t find a comprehensive resource for SWC POY award winners and haven’t yet done the online media guide data mining I think would be necessary to make it. 

Program breakdown of number of SEC player of the year award winners in baseball 

School (year joined)	Winners	Years
LSU (1932)	6	1993, 1994, 1996, 2003, 2004, 2012
Florida (1932)	3	2005, 2007, 2011
Tennessee (1932)	3	1995, 1998, 2001
Auburn (1932)	2	1997, 2010
Kentucky (1932)	2	2006, 2014
South Carolina (1991)	2	2000, 2002
Vanderbilt (1932)	2	1999, 2013
Alabama (1932)	1	2009
Georgia (1932)	1	2008
Ole Miss (1932)	1	2004
Arkansas (1991)	1	2015
Mississippi State (1932)	0	—
Missouri (2012)	0	—
Texas A&M (2012)	0	—

Via Wikipedia 

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