An Arkansas win would have historical impact on college football
The implications of Arkansas upsetting Texas A&M this weekend would stretch far and wide. Not only would that kind of win for a “rebuilding” Razorbacks team be a monumental step forward in the right direction, but it would bring with it a significant impact on the history of college football.
All seven teams from the SEC West would be ranked.
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Of course, this is assuming Ole Miss, Auburn and LSU beat their cupcake opponent teams, which is very likely.
Mississippi State’s road win against No. 8 LSU last weekend vaulted the Bulldogs to No. 14 in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll, and dropped LSU back to No. 17, leaving the Hogs as the only SEC team to be considered unranked.
The Hogs are knocking on the door, though. After a hard-fought loss to Auburn and an impressive three-game winning streak that included blowout victories against Texas Tech and Northern Illinois, Arkansas received nine votes in the AP Top 25, placing them at a hypothetical ranking of 38th. With a neutral-site victory against the No. 6 ranked Aggies on Saturday, the win would undoubtedly bump Arkansas into the Top 25 and the Aggies would drop, but not nearly far enough to fall outside the Top 25.
Arkansas head coach Bret Bielema has been cautious to keep his football team from getting complacent with the recent praise his team has been receiving this past week.
“I talk all the time [to our team] about how you earn everything and now you are getting a little bit of kudos,” Bielema said. “I’m very well aware that we’re the only team in the SEC West not ranked. I get that and deservedly so. We haven’t done anything to deserve that.”
For an unranked team and the de facto worst team in the SEC West, you wouldn’t know it by the numbers Arkansas has been putting up.
The Hogs boast the fifth-most efficient offense in the nation as well as the SEC’s most potent run game (324.5 yards per game). If you look for the best offenses in the country, you won’t have to look far for the Razorbacks. They have the nation’s third-highest scoring offense (48.8 points per game). During their current three-game winning streak the Razorbacks have outscored opponents 174-49. And with his team as the odd one out from the rankings, Bielema wants his team to leave its mark on possible college football history.
“We’re not ranked and I don’t like being the one that’s not. I’m not a big rank guy but I kind of want our place in the history, in that nostalgia,” Bielema said.
For Bielema, he’s not surprised by the success of the SEC this season. With six ranked teams from the SEC West alone, he says it’s no shock being around it every day, especially now that he’s got a newfound understanding of just how special this conference can be.
“I think there’s a respect in this league that you truly don’t understand until you’re involved in it. I truly understand it a lot more than I did last year.”
Arkansas will look to make it 7-for-7 for ranked SEC West teams on Saturday when they kick things off against the Aggies at 3:30 p.m. ET.