Baylor leads the nation with six ESPY nominations

Robert Griffin III, Brittney Griner, Kim Mulkey and the Lady Bear basketball team are all among those nominated for the 2012 ESPY Awards, ESPN announced on Wednesday.

The school-record six ESPY nominations covered categories from best team (Lady Bears), best female athlete (Griner) and best female college athlete (Griner again) to best breakthrough athlete (RG3), best male college athlete (RG3 again) and best coach/manager (Mulkey).

To put the six nominations in perspective, here’s a breakdown of nominees by metropolitan area: Los Angeles (10), New York City (8), Baylor campus (6), Miami (5), San Francisco (5). Only the Miami Heat and Los Angeles Kings (five each) scored more nominations than Baylor women’s basketball (four), and no organization has more than Baylor’s total of six nominations.

This isn’t the first time a Baylor Bear has been nominated for an ESPY. Michael Johnson won five ESPYs between 1994 and 2000 (best male track athlete, 1994-96-97-00; best male athlete, 1997), and Jeremy Wariner followed suit as best track and field athlete in 2007. Director John Lee Hancock won best sports movie twice, for The Rookie (2002) and The Blind Side (2010). Bears have also been nominated for best team (Lady Bears, 2005), best male Olympic performance (Wariner, 2005) and best breakthrough athlete (Griner, 2010). (Complete lists of past nominees available online are spotty at best; if you know of others, please let us know.)

Fans can vote for their favorites in each category at espn.com/espys, then tune in to ESPN to see who wins on July 11 at 8 p.m. CT.

Sic ’em, Baylor ESPY nominees!