Men's Basketball
Don’t worry over worthless Top 25 rankings
Hogs finish 26th in voting for this week’s Top 25 by The Associated Press, which means absolutely nothing and shouldn’t bother fans. Beat Tennessee and the ranking will be there.
Arkansas is not in The Associated Press weekly Top 25 rankings.
Again.
Many Razorback fans are ticked off. They see it as a lack of respect, which is probably true in a certain way, but it’s not personal.
Arkansas received the the 26th most votes (85) for a second consecutive week while three SEC opponents fall inside the top 20 with Texas A&M (5), Kentucky (16) and Tennessee (19).
Oklahoma, who the Razorbacks defeated at the Phil Knight Invitational in Portland, has won eight in a row since the loss and sits at No. 12.
Now the question of what does this mean?
Absolutely nothing.
If anything, when Mike Anderson is asked about it at a press conference Tuesday before Wednesday night’s game with California State-Bakersfield, the guess here is he will dismiss it.
Coaches tend to not worry a whole lot about things they can’t control and they certainly can’t control The AP voters.
He’s right. Fans shouldn’t be worrying about it, either.
Right now it means absolutely nothing other than to provide a little extra motivation to some opponents. And, based on what we’ve learned in the last few years with more transparency in the NCAA Tournament process, it means nothing coming tournament time.
Now, what Anderson won’t mention is the benefits the Hogs could get from being ranked in terms of publicity.
A lot of media outlets do not get information on college teams that are not ranked in the Top 25. Right or wrong, that’s the way it has been for decades.
When I started in the business over 40 years ago, if the Hogs weren’t ranked, well, you didn’t get any information from the wire services about their games other than in the mile-long list of scores.
Getting ranked could possibly provide some additional publicity in places outside the state of Arkansas.
But how much is anybody’s guess.
Don’t worry about it, though.
A win over Tennessee on Saturday will shoot the Hogs into the Top 25.
Probably into the top 20 or even higher.
