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.
