FAYETTEVILLE -- Already the national aspirations of the University of Arkansas' track and field teams and softball team distance their recent SEC championships in the rearview mirror.
The baseball Razorbacks, since Thursday able to tell how the West was at least half won, more will be the subjects of College World Series speculation than SEC adulation should they conclude today as outright SEC West and possibly SEC Overall champions.
That's kind of a shame. For even the prospective national limelight shouldn't blind any to the accomplishments of winning the league.
Before coaching Razorbacks baseball to five College World Series, Dave Van Horn coached Nebraska to its first-ever two CWS appearances in Omaha.
Yet it's winning the Big 12 eliciting Van Horn's fondest Nebraska memory.
"To me, that was the biggest accomplishment that we achieved,." Van Horn said. "Because you can get hot, get a break and get to Omaha every now and then."
Winning the league, that's winning the long haul. And going by the tops of the polls, the toughest long hauls generally come in the SEC.
"When you go through the gauntlet of the SEC week in and week out," Van Horn said. "And you can hang in there and have a chance to win the league, it's a big deal."
Even as her Razorbacks women's softball team prepped for Friday's Regional opener against Manhattan, Coach Courtney Deifel when asked replied her team always appreciates tying for the 2021 SEC championship.
"We know how hard it is to do," Deifel said. "We celebrate all of it."
From one who has won many, Deifel learned to celebrate all.
"Talking to Lance Harter who just won his umpteenth championship, I asked him do you ever get tired of winning?" Deifel said.
Nope. He doesn't. Harter's Razorbacks women's cross country, indoor and outdoor track teams have won six national championships and 41 SEC championships.
His teams winning the SEC may seem routine, but Harter saw nothing routine in his nationally No. 2 Razorbacks outpointing No. 1 LSU to win the SEC Outdoor earlier this month in College Station, Texas.
"Dennis Shaver, the LSU coach, said this is his best team ever," Harter said. "Their kids did well all the way through and we were still able to get in front of them. Of the last 21 SEC championships we've won 20. That goes back seven years."
That's not routine. That's phenomenal.
Succeeding retired Arkansas 84-times men's conference champion cross country/track coach John McDonnell, Chris Bucknam's Razorbacks continued winning the SEC apparently routinely.
Twenty-five titles since 2009. A rare dry spell winning none but since quenched by a 4 for 4 and counting SEC championship run should make all realize those accomplishments never should be regarded routinely.
"Nearly everybody in every sport knows if you are the SEC champion you are good," Bucknam said. "That's the value of the SEC trophy. It shows you are really good at what you do."
Seems this spring Arkansas shows many really good ones to value.