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Dave Aranda addresses Baylor's ability to rise into a Big 12 power

Alex Weberby:Alex Weber•07/14/22
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Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images

Business is booming for Baylor athletics. At least for the athletic department’s primary sports. The football team just underwent one of the greatest single-season turnarounds in college football history under coach Dave Aranda. From 2-7 in 2020 to 12-2, Big 12 champions, Sugar Bowl champions, and No. 5 in the country in the final AP Poll of the season. Their highest finish ever. So, arguably, 2021 was the greatest season in Baylor Bears history.

As was the 2021 Baylor basketball season — without argument. Scott Drew returned four of five starters off a 2020 team that would have earned a one-seed in the NCAA Tournament before COVID cut the season short. Perhaps they would’ve won the title too. Because in 2021, led by Davion Mitchell, Jared Butler and fan-favorite forward Mark Vital, Baylor stormed to the title game and molly whopped Gonzaga to win the ’21 NCAA Tournament.

Of course, the women’a basketball program is also a powerhouse, and has been for far longer than the men’s basketball and football teams. Overall, an athletic department dominating the most popular collegiate sports.

Dave Aranda on Bears athletic department

Football coach Dave Aranda was recently asked about the school’s status in sports and whether they can be the preeminent power in the Big 12 going forward. Here was his answer:

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“I appreciate the question. I think it starts with the focus, with more focus on things that are outside of the sport, more focus on academics. Hey, we had this GPA this semester, right, and that was a record; let’s do better the next semester. You had your personal best this semester; let’s get a new personal best this coming semester. The focus on spiritual growth.”

Aranda loves the sports success, but wants even greater achievement off the field or court.

“I think it’s easy sometimes to get caught up in like moralism and I’ve got to do something because it’s right or this is wrong and all this other thing. But to do something because you feel at union with — you feel like there’s a oneness and you feel the love of Christ, I think that’s a whole other thing. So I think the focus on those things opens people up and lets them really be seen, and I think that makes a difference.”