RAZORBACKS to battle six teams in AP top 13.
FAYETTEVILLE — University of Arkansas Athletic Director Hunter Yurachek wrote what many Razorbacks fans were thinking when the SEC announced its two-team schedule additions Aug. 7, with Arkansas drawing Georgia and Florida.
“We already owned the nation’s strongest 2020 football schedule and with these additions to our SEC-only schedule, we now own the most challenging schedule in the history of college football,” Yurachek wrote.
The 62 voters of the Associated Press Top 25 poll agree with Yurachek.
Arkansas will face six teams ranked in the top 13 of the AP preseason poll that was released Monday. Additionally, the Hogs are the only team in the conference scheduled to face each of the seven SEC teams that appear in the preseason poll.
If the Razorbacks’ game at Notre Dame scheduled for Nov. 12 in South Bend, Ind., had remained on the docket instead of being wiped out by the coronavirus pandemic, Arkansas would have faced five of the top 10 teams and seven of the top 13.
As it stands, 70% of the the opponents on Arkansas’ shortened 10-game slate are in the AP Top 25 preseason rankings.
The schedule features the season opener Sept. 26 against preseason No. 4 Georgia, and ends on Dec. 5 against No. 3 Alabama. Those two teams project as the favorites in the SEC East and West divisions.
In between, Arkansas is scheduled to face No. 6 LSU, the defending College Football Playoff champion, No. 8 Florida, No. 11 Auburn, No. 13 Texas A&M and No. 25 Tennessee.
The Razorbacks’ only games against nonranked teams are Oct. 3 at Mississippi State, Oct. 17 vs. Ole Miss at Reynolds Razorback Stadium and Nov. 28 at Missouri.
Clemson (38) and Ohio State (21) received the lion’s share of first-place votes on AP ballots, while Alabama (2) and LSU (1) got the others.
AP voters were asked to consider every FBS team, including those in conferences that have announced they were suspending fall football. The first regular-season poll issued by the AP will feature only teams that are playing fall football.