Good news! After a few painful football-less months, spring practice has kicked off (woo hoo!), and the countdown to the 2010 season has officially begun. Everyone around the Arkansas Expats, Inc office is giddy with excitement...we're even going to let the interns go home two minutes early to celebrate.
In the meantime, given that the actual games don't happen for another five months or so, expect to read a lot of stories that either go like this:
The Arkansas Razorbacks will be the surprise team of 2010!!!!!!
Or this:
The Arkansas Razorbacks are the most over-hyped team in the SEC!!!!!!
So which is it? Being the all-knowing prognosticators that we are, of course we have the answer, but in order to hold your attention we don't plan on revealing it just yet (did I mention that we have five months of time to kill? We have to stretch this out, people!). But, follow us after the jump to see what some other "experts" are saying...
* The interestingly-named College Football Cafeteria has made our job easy by posting no fewer than nine different preseason polls in one spot (they also average them all and put the Hogs at #19). They also make a point of listing as Arkansas as one of the most overrated teams, so put one vote down for the over-hyped category.
* On the flip side, the blog The Big Lead has done an early ranking which puts the Razorbacks at #9. Of course, they've accompanied this with a video of special teams coach John L. Smith acting the fool during his Michigan State days, so take it with a grain of salt.
* A slightly more thoughtful ranking by the San Jose Mercury News puts Arkansas at #12, with writer Jon Wilner saying the Hogs are "a real threat to be the SEC’s second team in the BCS."
* CollegeFootballSaturday.com and NationalChamps.net both fall in the middle, ranking the Razorbacks #19 and #20, respectively.
* And what do the big guys think? It's still early, of course, but ESPN and SI are going in different directions. The Worldwide Leader's Mark Schlabach has the Hogs at #15, saying "It seems to be only a matter of time before Bobby Petrino has the Razorbacks seriously challenging Alabama, Auburn and LSU in the SEC West." Meanwhile, Andy Staples of SI.com only has UA in his "also receiving votes" category, unofficially putting them at #28.
So that's the early roundup. What do you guys think? Are the Hogs overhyped, underhyped or somewhere in the middle? Weigh in with your thoughts on those questions or any other spring practice issues in the comments section.