We all know that Arkansas has an incredibly difficult schedule this year. The SEC did us no favors when they added two games to the conference schedule and gave us what are possibly the two best teams from the East – Georgia and Florida.
I think we can all agree that the SEC has 6 traditional big-time powers: Alabama, Auburn, LSU in the West and Georgia, Florida, and Tennessee in the East. All programs have periods of being up and down, but these schools have all won at least one national championship in modern times (by modern times, I mean since the 70s).
Arkansas plays all six teams this year. I have been wondering lately: has any other team EVER played all six of these teams in the same season? My guess is no.
I just looked at the conference schedule for this year to see if anyone else in the SEC plays all six this year. (That means, obviously, that none of those six schools do, since they are part of the six. The schedule shows that many of them play no more than four of their group of six. None of them play even all five of the rest of the group.) Of the remaining SEC schools, a small handful (two or three, I think it was) play five of the six, but most play fewer than that.
I don’t have the time to research all previous seasons. I know the SEC played only six league games for much of their history, so I’m pretty confident that Arkansas is tasked with doing something this year that no other school has ever done – play Alabama, Auburn, LSU, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida in the same season.
I’m not really complaining. It is what it is. I just find it very interesting, and I hope we give Sam Pittman the patience that is needed.