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Craig James still has Arkansas at #3? Eh, what?

I watched the BCS Countdown show on ESPN this past Sunday night, where college football "analysts" Craig James and Rod Gilmore laid out their top ten rankings. Following their 41-17 loss to top-ranked LSU, James kept 10-2 Arkansas at #3 in the country, as their only two losses were to the before-mentioned LSU Tigers and #2 Alabama. Eh, what?

Arkansas is a good team. They've had a very solid year under head coach Bobby Petrino, but at this point in the season, they have not proven themselves of being #3-worthy. Let's look at their resume, shall we?

Arkansas' non-conference schedule consisted of I-AA Missouri State, 1-10 New Mexico, 3-8 Troy (whom they beat by a mere 10 points) and 6-6 Texas A&M (whom they beat by 4 points). I won't even include Missouri State in this equation, as they're not of the same division as Arkansas, but the other three non-conference opponents are a combined 10-24 (.294) and the Razorbacks beat two of them by 10 points or fewer.

Now onto conference play in the tough SEC, where Arkansas finished 6-2. Their wins came against: 7-5 Auburn, 2-10 Mississippi (by 5 points), 6-6 Vanderbilt (by 3 points), 10-2 South Carolina, 5-7 Tennessee and 6-6 Mississippi State. For the season, Arkansas has defeated two teams whom hold an above-.500 record in their wins over the Gamecocks of South Carolina and the Auburn Tigers. They've defeated four teams whom hold a .500 record or greater (the before-mentioned two to go along with Mississippi State and Vanderbilt). So, their wins in the all-mighty SEC have come against teams with a combined record of 36-36 (.500) and their wins overall (excluding I-AA Missouri State) have come against teams with a record of 46-60 (.434). The only two guaranteed wins they'll have against above-.500 teams at season's end will be Auburn and South Carolina. They also won four games against teams with a combined record of 17-30 (.362) by a combined 22 points (5.5 avg.), these games coming against: 3-8 Troy, 6-6 Texas A&M, 2-10 Mississippi and 6-6 Vanderbilt.

When it comes to their losses, while it may be true that Arkansas lost to the top two teams in the country to account for their only losses thus far in the season, they lost by a combined score of 79-31 (39.5 - 15.5 avg.). They averaged to lose the two games by 24 points. It's not like they played LSU and Alabama to the end or that they were even competitive. They got stomped by both teams.

Given their resume, I think it's preposterous to lay claim that Arkansas is the third best team in the country, as Craig James claimed on Sunday night. Oklahoma State, Stanford, Virginia Tech and Boise State all have just one loss. Houston is undefeated. To go along with Arkansas, the following teams have two losses: Oregon, USC, Michigan State, Georgia, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Wisconsin, Kansas State, Michigan and Southern Mississippi. Those are sixteen teams whom have two losses or fewer (excluding LSU and Alabama). While Arkansas has defeated only two above-.500 teams, Oklahoma State has defeated five such teams (Tulsa, Texas, Missouri, Baylor and Kansas State). Stanford has defeated four such clubs (Washington, USC, California and Notre Dame). Virginia Tech has defeated four such teams (Arkansas State, Georgia Tech, North Carolina and Virginia) and has a chance at defeating #5 this coming weekend in the ACC Championship game versus Clemson. Oregon has defeated four such clubs as well (Nevada, California, Washington and Stanford) and was actually competitive in their loss to LSU. USC has defeated five teams with an above-.500 record (Utah, California, Notre Dame, Washington and Oregon). Get the picture? Arkansas may have a very good team, but their resume is not nearly as impressive as some other one- and two-loss teams.

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