University of Pittsburgh Athletics
Pitt Ranks First in ACC (T-13th Overall) in CBS Sports Best in College Sports
7/25/2023 2:22:00 PM | General
PITTSBURGH – Pitt Athletics ranked first in the ACC and tied for 13th nationally in the 2022-23 CBS Sports Best in College Sports Rankings. In 2013, CBS Sports began presenting its Best in College Sports award utilizing a weighted formula that recognizes sports with more broad interest.
Every FBS program is rated in three sports -- football, men's basketball and women's basketball -- along with two "wild cards" among the school's most successful spectator sports: baseball, softball, volleyball, soccer, gymnastics, lacrosse, hockey and wrestling.
The weighted formula puts 2.5 times as much emphasis on football and 2.0 times as much on men's basketball compared to the rest of the sports. Teams that do not finish in the final AP Top 25 in football but play in a bowl are awarded 62.5 points (25 x 2.5). Those that make the men's NIT are given 20 points (10 x 2), while WNIT teams receive 10 points (Note: North Carolina was invited to the NIT, so even though they didn't accept, they were awarded 20 points.) For all titles settled via bracket, such as the NCAA Tournament, point totals are based on number of participants. All champions in the other sports receive 100 points for a national championship in the formula created by longtime CBS Sports producer J. Darin Darst.
The full CBS Sports Best in College Sports article is available HERE.
The Panthers garnered 377 points with football, men's basketball, volleyball, and men's soccer generating the point tally.
2022-23 Pitt Athletics Highlights:
- Pitt finished 52nd in the 2022-23 LEARFIELD Directors' Cup standings, marking its top finish since 1994-95. The Panthers point total of 469.00 is the highest in department history. Football, men's basketball, men's cross country, men's swimming & diving, men's soccer, volleyball, women's indoor track & field, women's soccer and wrestling all earned Directors' Cup points for Pitt.
- Nino Bonaccorsi became Pitt's 17th national champion in wrestling and first in 15 years on Saturday, March 18 at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Okla. The Bethel Park, Pa. native overcame a 3-0 deficit en route to a 5-3 decision over South Dakota State's Tanner Sloan in the 197-pound final. Bonaccorsi also became the first Pitt wrestler to earn ACC Wrestler of the Year (Co). He went 21-0, becoming just the sixth individual Pitt wrestler to achieve an unbeaten, untied season.
- Volleyball returned to the Final Four for the second season in a row, defeating Colgate and BYU in the Petersen Events Center before taking down SEC Champion Florida and Big Ten Champion Wisconsin in the Madison Regional at the UW Field House, becoming the first team in the history of the NCAA Tournament to win a true road match against the defending national champions (Wisconsin) in the Elite 8. Pitt won a share of the 2022 ACC Championship, marking the program's fourth ACC title over the course of six seasons, and finished with 31 wins, the most in a season since 1990.
- Men's Soccer earned its second trip to the NCAA College Cup in the past three seasons after collecting four victories in the NCAA Tournament, including one over the top-ranked Kentucky Wildcats on the road. The Panthers capped the 2022 campaign with a 12-5-5 overall record and a 3-2-3 ACC mark while being ranked No. 4 in the final Top Drawer Soccer top-25 rankings.
- Men's Basketball posted its first 20+ win season since the 2015-16 campaign, while making its 27th NCAA Tournament appearance and their first under head coach Jeff Capel. The Panthers won two games in NCAA Tournament play for the first time since the 2008-09 season and just the seventh time in program history.
- Women's Soccer finished the season ranked 12th in the United Soccer Coaches Rankings, earning a top-25 ranking in each of the final seven weeks of the organization's top-25 poll. The Panthers made their first appearance in NCAA Championships advancing to the Sweet Sixteen and also qualified for the ACC Championship field for the first time in program history. Pitt's record-breaking year included the most overall wins [14], most ACC wins [5], most home wins [8], most goals scored [47], and most points scored [138] in program history.
- Football won the final five games of the season, including a dramatic Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl victory over No. 18 UCLA, 37-35, to finish with a 9-4 record and No. 22 final ranking in the Associated Press Poll and USA TODAY AFCA Coaches Poll After finishing No. 13 in 2021, Pitt's football program secured a second consecutive Top-25 finish in the final AP Poll for the first time in 40 years (1982-83).
- For the first time in program history, Pitt had two runners qualify for the NCAA Cross Country Championships. Juniors Jack Miller and Luke Henseler become the first Pitt male runners to qualify for the NCCA Championships overall since 1994.
- Men's Swimming & Diving had 12 NCAA Championship qualifiers, the most for the program in over 20 years. Pitt's 400-yard medley relay team (Krzysztof Radziszewski, Cooper Van der Laan, Marcin Goraj, and Dominic Toledo) finished 16th overall and broke their own school record with a time of 3:05.72, earning an Honorable Mention All-American status. Cooper Van der Laan secured individual Honorable Mention All-American honors at the NCAA Championships with a 16th-place overall finish in the 100-yard breaststroke.
- Pitt captured two Atlantic Coast Conference team titles and three ACC individual titles in 2022-23 and now has won 43 championships in 10 seasons as a member of the league.
- The Pitt Wrestling team scored a dominating 43-3 win over Duke to cap off a 4-1 record in ACC duals and finish in a three-way tie atop the league standings with NC State and Virginia Tech. The Panthers scored a 26-12 win over No. 7 Virginia Tech in a late January dual in Blacksburg, Va.
- Nino Bonaccorsi (197) and Cole Matthews (141) claimed ACC titles at the 2023 Wrestling Championship. Bonaccorsi was crowned ACC champion for the third consecutive season, while Matthews earned back-to-back titles.
- Felix Wolter won the heptathlon with 6,059 points at the ACC Indoor Track & Field Championship to become the first individual at Pitt to win three consecutive ACC track titles.
- Calijah Kancey earned ACC Defensive Player of the Year honors after compiling 31 tackles, 14.5 tackles for loss and 7.5 sacks in 11 games played, while facing an array of blocking schemes designed to slow him down. A consensus First Team All-America selection and 2023 First Round NFL Draft pick, Kancey became the second Pitt player (joining Aaron Donald, 2013) to garner ACC Defensive Player of the Year recognition.
- Jeff Capel was named ACC Men's Basketball Coach of the Year after guiding the Panthers to an impressive turnaround season. Picked to finish 14th in the preseason poll, Pitt set a program record with 14 ACC wins and nearly won the conference title when a last second three-point attempt at Miami in the final game of the regular season came up just short. The Panthers went on to win two NCAA Tournament games and finish the season 24-12 overall.
