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With no minimum wins required, Hogs’ bowl will help boost solid recruiting

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The odds are very good Arkansas will be playing in a bowl game this year, regardless of the number of wins in the remainder of whatever the schedule becomes.

When the minimum number of wins required to go bowling in the covid season, the entire scenario for bowl games changed dramatically.

As much as boosting the morale of everyone from fans on up, it likely would help what Sam Pittman has rolling in the recruiting game as that season is in high gear.

The Hogs picked up a commitment from Georgia in safety Jayden Johnson, who de-committed from South Carolina after they kicked Will Muschamp to the curb last week.

In what has all the potential in the world to be complete chaos in the world of recruiting as there could be a record number of de-commits all over the country. Remember, most of these high school players have never even seen the campus in person they said they want to spend their college careers.

Johnson’s pickup moved the Hogs to No. 19 in the 247Sports.com composite of all the recruiting rankings, but things will probably settle with Arkansas somewhere in the mid-20’s at best.

Bowl projections in the national media have the Razorbacks playing in the Texas Bowl against Texas, which is a dream marketing matchup for ESPN to get the most possible eyeballs to tune in on New Year’s Eve.

A couple of the projections place them in the Outback Bowl against Indiana and the Music City Bowl game in Nashville has been mentioned.

The fact is bowl games became about the attractiveness of the television matchup when ESPN basically took charge of the bowl games a few years ago. They have the television rights to nearly all of them along with the national radio rights.

It is not completely out of the possibilities in this crazy year the entire SEC could be playing in a bowl game.

In a year with nobody putting a lot of people in the stands for safety reasons, television viewership has become critical and football is drawing eyeballs.

Apparently people would rather watch cable news channels than the World Series and everything on TV drew considerably more viewers than the NBA (even the playoffs and finals).

The Hogs getting to a bowl game this year is an interesting storyline with a team that will likely be able to hold its own against just about anybody not playing in the top playoff games.

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2024 Razorbacks Football

Thu, Aug 29vs UAPB (Little Rock)W, 70-0
Sat, Sep 7@ Oklahoma StateL, 31-39 2OT
Sat, Sep 14vs UABW, 37-27
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Sat, Sep 28vs Texas A&M (Arl)L, 21-17
Sat, Oct 5vs TennesseeW, 19-14
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Sat, Oct 26@ Mississippi StateW, 58-25
Sat, Nov 2vs Ole MissL, 63-31
Sat, Nov 16vs TexasL, 20-10
Sat, Nov 23vs Louisiana Tech3:00 PM
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2024 High School Rankings

Following is the Arkansas Sports Media High School Football Poll including the Overall Top 10, the top five in Classes 7A, 6A, 5A, 4A, 3A and 2A, plus the top three in the 8-man division, as voted by a panel of sports media from around the state for the week ending August 24. Ranking is given with first-place votes received, records, total points and ranking from last week's poll:
OVERALLRecordPtsPrv
1.Bryant (25)10-02681
2.Greenwood (2)10-02343
30Conway9-12022
4.Little Rock Parkview9-11714
5.Bentonville7-31625
6.Benton9-11486
7.Fayetteville8-21117
8.Pulaski Academy8-2898
9.Rogers7-3439
10.Joe T. Robinson9-122
Others receiving votes: Valley View 8, Mountain Home 7, Cabot 6, Little Rock Catholic 6, Shiloh Christian 6, Elkins 1, Farmington 1.
CLASS 7A
1.Bryant (27)10-01351
2.Conway9-11022
3.Bentonville7-3813
4.Fayetteville8-2454
5.Pulaski Academy8-2395
Others receiving votes: Rogers 3.
CLASS 6A
1.Greenwood (27)10-01351
2.Benton9-11082
3.Mountain Home8-2623
4.Shiloh Christian7-3494
5.Little Rock Catholic9-1345
Others receiving votes: Marion 6.
CLASS 5A
1.Little Rock Parkview (27)9-11351
2.Joe T. Robinson9-11062
3.Valley View10-0793
4.Farmington9-1484
5.Hot Springs Lakeside8-2205
Others receiving votes: Camden Fairview 7, Harding Academy 7, Morrilton 3.
CLASS 4A
1.Elkins (20)10-01261
3.Arkadelphia (5)8-2913
2.Little Rock Mills (1)10-0682
4.Warren8-2554
5.Dardanell (1)9-123
Southside Batesville10-023
Others receiving votes: Malvern 12, Gravette 5, Highland 2.
CLASS 3A
1.Bismarck (12)10-01051t
2.Fordyce (10)10-0961t
3.Prescott (1)9-1704
4.Osceola (2)8-1543
5.Booneville (1)9-1395
Others receiving votes: Mansfield (1) 23, Rivercrest 10, Rison 4, Salem 4.
CLASS 2A
1.Carlisle (20)10-01271
2.Conway Christian (7)10-01152
3.Des Arc8-2595
4.East Poinsett Co.7-352
5.Bigelow6-4183
Murfreesboro7-3184
Others receiving votes: Mount Ida 6, Junction City 4, Cross County 3, Poyen 3.
8-MAN SANCTIONED
1.Strong-Huttig (27)5-0811
2.Midland9-0532
3.Cedar Ridge8-1253
Others receiving votes: Woodlawn 3.

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ESPN ARKANSAS 99.5 IN FAYETTEVILLE, 95.3 IN THE RIVER VALLEY, 96.3 IN HOT SPRINGS, 104.3 IN HARRISON-MOUNTAIN HOME.