The cold reality in the SEC West is that someone has to finish last.

Even if every West Division team goes unbeaten in its two cross-division conference games — which didn’t even happen in ’14 — splits the rest of its SEC slate and sweeps the non-conference schedule, all seven teams will finish the regular season with three losses. And that’s a virtually impossible premise.

Last fall, Arkansas improved from 3 to 7 wins, spanking Texas in the bowl named after the Longhorns’ home state. The Razorbacks also lost four one-possession games to ranked SEC teams, showing just how far Bret Bielema brought the team in his second season. The team even got votes in the final Associated Press Top 25 poll.

RELATED: Examining the 2015 strength of schedule for every SEC team

But look at the 2014 SEC standings. There’s Arkansas, squarely at the bottom of the SEC West. Only Vanderbilt collected fewer SEC wins than the Razorbacks last season.

The Hogs’ schedule, coupled with major personnel losses on defense, doesn’t set up well for the team to climb the SEC West a few rungs in 2015. If Arkansas wants to avoid a third consecutive last-place finish in what many consider to be the best division in college football, it will have to overcome a brutal slate of opponents.

Ten of the Razorbacks’ 12 contests in 2015 feature an opponent that made a bowl game last season. The combined ’14 winning percentage of Arkansas’ opponents is .635, making it the most difficult in the SEC and the second-most difficult in the nation.

Before you dismiss the ’14 strength of schedule as a poor predictor of this season, consider that by the same metric, Arkansas faced the SEC’s toughest schedule entering last fall and finished last in the SEC West, while Alabama faced the easiest and won. SEC East champion Missouri also ranked near the bottom of the conference in opponent winning percentage entering the ’14 season.

The non-conference slate isn’t all that intimidating. Texas Tech, which Arkansas obliterated on the road last season, comes to Razorback Stadium hoping for revenge. Mizzou, the program’s annual cross-division opponent, must come to Fayetteville, Ark., two days after Thanksgiving. Mississippi State and Texas A&M, the two other potential candidates to be the worst good team in the SEC West, also travel to face Arkansas.

But the Razorbacks face a brutal SEC road slate, including a pair of back-to-back away games. (That’s without considering the team was 5-1 in Fayetteville last season and 2-5 everywhere else.)

After hosting the two Lone Star State schools to end September, Arkansas faces back-to-back road games at Tennessee and Alabama. The Vols are improving perhaps even faster than the Razorbacks and could be ranked when the teams meet Oct. 3. Then Arkansas faces back-to-back road games at Ole Miss and LSU in early November. The Razorbacks shut out both those teams in Fayetteville last November, and the Rebels and Tigers will be playing angry.

If you believe Arkansas is a Top 25 team entering the 2015 season, the Razorbacks are more than capable of overcoming the brutal schedule and ascending perhaps to the middle of the pack in the SEC West. There are no easy-schedule years for Arkansas.

But the ’15 slate, with four numbing road games, potentially all against ranked opponents, won’t make it easy for Bielema to continue the program’s forward progress this fall.