Arkansas plans to play as many as 10 soccer games this spring before the tournament.
I completely forgot that there is the NCAA tournament for soccer this spring. That will be fun.
Arkansas could have as many as 18 teams competing in an NCAA postseason during the spring semester â every sport but football. Soccer, volleyball and cross country championships were all pushed to the spring. Itâs going to be busy.
Football â never
Basketball â 25 years
Baseball â 3 years
Either tennis team making the NCAAT would be a surprise. Both of them are 4-0 so far but they ainât played nobody.
Most likely - Womenâs indoor and outdoor track this year
Needs some breaks, but could win in the next five years - baseball, soccer and gymnastics
Iâve watched all of the gymnastics meets this year and I think Jordyn Wieber has the team on the right track. Theyâve moved up to No. 4 in the polls despite winning just one meet this year. Sheâs been able to pick up some key pieces from the transfer portal and the Razorbacks have been fun to watch. The problem is Florida is so good this year nobody has been able to touch the scores theyâre putting up.
The Gymâbacks are better this year. There are a few areas that still need real improvement. Sticking those landings consistently could raise scores. Iâm encouraged to see the progress and they sure are fun to watch.
1 Like
FootballâIâm afraid not in my lifetime. I became a hog fan in the fall of 1964 and have waited every year for a repeat. From '65 until about 1990, with some annual exceptions, I kept thinking this could be the year. Itâs possible we could win an NC in football, but itâs just not likely. Recruiting classes in top 25 range might get you there if a lot of players are underrated or over-produce, but theyâre not likely to outperform the Alabamas or Ohio States of the world.
Basketballâit could happen anytime, but still isnât likely anytime soon. Same for both men & women.
Baseballâcould be anytime, even this year.
Trackâany time for men or women
Softballâno idea, but I think we could get there with this coach.
Soccerâsame as softball.
Golfâwill defer to others.
Until the playoff is expanded I donât think youâre going to see a different national champion outside of the dozen or so teams you expect to challenge for it every year. Those are Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson, Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Georgia, LSU â maybe Auburn, Texas, Michigan, Florida, Oregon. There will be some non-bluebloods make the playoff from time to time because they win a weaker Power 5 conference championship, but they will be overmatched when they get to the semifinal like Michigan State or Washington were.
The playoff has created a recruiting atmosphere to where the best players are congregating on the best teams like maybe never before, and different variations of the same teams are getting into the playoff field year after year. Even the transfers seem to be bouncing between those teams a lot â Justin Fields from Georgia to Ohio State, Joe Burrow from Ohio State to LSU, Trey Sermon from Oklahoma to Ohio State, Jalen Hurts from Alabama to Oklahoma are some who come to mind â and that might become even more prevalent once the one-time transfer is in place.
It seems to me the odds are stacked heavily against all but a handful of teams to win a championship under the current format. It needs to change to where a team could have a once-in-a-generation-type season and get a chance at the playoff. Texas A&M was left out this year with one loss to the championship team. Arkansas in 2011 would probably have been left out with a 10-2 record. There are and will be many other examples of when great teams did not get a chance to prove themselves in a tournament setting.
Aloha Matt,
Well stated. Should be shared with UA AD HY.
GHG!
We were 6th in the BCS ranking that year. The Sugar Bowl team the year before was 8th. Would the CFP committee have reached a different decision? I dunno, but I doubt it. Nobodyâs made the playoffs yet with two losses. You have to get through with one or no defeats, and if you only have one loss you have to get lucky, which the Aggies didnât.
2011 BCS standings: LSU (13-0), Bama (11-1), Okie Lite (11-1), Stanford (11-1), Oregon (11-2), us, Boise State (11-1), K-State (10-2). Of course we beat K-State in Dallas, and we lost to #1 and #2.
If there had been an 8-team playoff in 2011 with the Power Five conference winners, one Group of Five winner and two at-large, I think we would have gotten in. The Big Ten winner was coached by a rather large former pig farmer from Prophetsville, IL; they were 10th. Boise would have gotten the Group of Five spot, and the at-large spots would have been Bama and us.
The best thing for us (and for A&M this year) would be the top 8 teams regardless of conference, I think.
HY ainât got nothing to do with this, Guy. Those decisions are made over his head. Greg Sankey does have something to do with that, and Iâm sure he would like a system where A&M could have gotten in this year, but unless Tattoo U was going to be penalized for only playing six games, the Ags werenât going to get in over them or Notre Dame or Clemson. The only way the Aggies could have gotten in is if theyâd lost to Bama by 3 instead of 28.
Aloha Jeff,
Sorry for the miss understanding. I am not referring to the ATM situation. I am referring to the recruiting situation and current BCS limitation of only four teams.
I think Matt has a very VALID point that the current BCS limitation of four teams has a very negative and serious consequence. The prime recruits consistently gravitate to the top four teams which makes it impossible for any other teams to recruit enough talent to compete for the national title. The BCS should be expanded to at least eight to 16 teams, if not more to help balance out the recruiting field so more teams can reasonably compete for the national title.
Because of the recruiting implications of the BCS, I think the BCS should either be expanded to 16 teams or replaced by another system which adequately levels out the playing field. Thinking totally out of the box, how about BCS teams lose 10 scholarships for the next two years, reducing their total from 85 to 75. This will maintain four BCS teams but not allow them to hoard all of the top talent.
Just review Bamaâs haul this year. Itâs obscene and shouldnât be tolerated any longer. They have a built in advantage due to the BCS limitation of only four teams. The rich most definitely get richer at the expense of everyone else.
GHG!!
Rivals recruiting rankings, 2021: Alabama 1, Ohio State 2, Clemson 7 (they only signed 19), Notre Dame 10. 247 composite: Bama 1, tOSU 2, Clemson 5, ND 9. Oh yeah, and Georgia and LSU and A&M are also in the top 7 in both, The rich get richer.
OU was only 11th in 247. Oregon was top 10 in both. Washington, which somehow crashed the playoff club in 2017, was 35th. Sparty (2016) was 43rd. Neither U-Dub nor Sparty has the same coach that took them to the playoffs. Thatâs it for teams that have made the CFP in its history.
What can you do about it? Assuming that those four arenât backing up Brinks trucks to their recruitsâ houses, nothing. Or expand the playoffs so that maybe someone outside that select club can get the occasional sniff. Of course it would also help if there was more than one elite team in the Big 10+4 or the ACC at one time, so the Suckeyes and Clemson canât cruise to 12-1/13-0 every year. At least Bama usually has to earn it a couple of times a year.
Iâve always opposed an expansion of the playoffs. Havenât really liked the 4 team format. However, I didnât foresee the consequence of the 4 team format just enriching those same 4 teams so much that they can dominate forever. If going to an 8 game playoff dilutes that, Iâm all for it.
I do not know what can be done to fix a system where Alabama gets so many 5 star players year after year, but I have no doubt that their constant presence in the playoff has made it possible for them to recruit so well. We can have a good, even a really good team, but when we play in the same division where 2 or 3 of our annual opponents are recruiting at or near that level, weâll never stand a chance.
Iâve heard it suggested that a limit be imposed on the number of 5-stars a school can sign. Since recruiting rankings are purely subjective, that just screams out for elite schools paying recruiting services to downgrade their recruits to get around the limits. Donât think they would? I know they would.
Bama has two things recruits love: They win big, and they put people in the NFL. Nine Scum players were drafted last year, 12 in 2018. Even if there were no playoffs at all, Bama could sell that to recruits.
It sure seems like the top two teams have been playing in the title game. I donât think it would change going to eight teams. If there is a move to more teams, I would expect there to be requirements for conference champs in the five major leagues be included. Maybe not. But I donât see that changing anything. Maybe injuries to QBs â about the only thing that really alters results â would happen more often in a deeper playoff system.
Yea if a limit is put on 5* recruits you can land in each class, with the newly developed portal, I think the big boys will just arrange more 5* transfers from other programs.They will learn to work the system quick.
I did the research back in college, but if I remember correctly, since the start of the BCS era there hasnât been a team that has won a national championship without having a to 10 recruiting class in the previous three years. So it really does come down to the Jimmy and Joes.
Baseball in 2024
Football in 64, basketball in 94 and baseball in 24âŚ