College Football Playoff Top 25 Rankings: Arkansas Makes Debut Entry

Chalk up another thing Bret Bielema has given Arkansas fans for the first time (of course, it didn’t exist prior to his arrival in Fayetteville, but still): an appearance in the College Football Playoff Top 25 rankings.

The Razorbacks had been in the AP and Coaches’ Polls since defeating TCU in Week 2, but were knocked out of the polls following the disaster at Auburn, and were still left out even after the dominant win over Florida, but the Playoff Committee has come through for us this time.

Interestingly, in the traditional polls, Florida remained ranked, but the committee did not included the Gators.

Arkansas has three quality wins on their resume. Even if losses have knocked them out of the polls, which do what they can to serve as standings as well as rankings, teams like TCU and Ole Miss are still respected in the advanced stats categories despite their losses, especially after TCU’s dominant win over Baylor last weekend.

The Razorbacks’ next opponent, LSU, is ranked #24.

Jeff Long has said before hoped for the day he could recuse himself from the committee because they had to discuss Arkansas, and it appears that finally happened this weekend. He is still on the committee although he is no longer chair.