12-Team Playoff System to Debut in 2024

FAYETTEVILLE Other than for a fleeting moment under the lights of Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tenne see in 1998, Arkansas has never felt like a legitimate threat for a shot at a national championship since the NCAA decided to start having teams play for a legitimate title in the '90s.Yes, there was a good year under Petrino where there was technically a path, but everyone knew going in that at the end of that path was Nick Saban and Alabama, so it wasn't really something people truly believed.Even after a drubbing from the fighting Sabans, there was still supposed to be a way, but No. 1 LSU dropped the hammer, giving the Razorbacks a pair of blowout lo ses.Arkansas was third in the SEC West behind national champion Alabama and SEC champion/national runner-up LSU, yet still good enough to easily bounce No. 8 Kansas St., but what was that worth in those days?While there wasn't a way for Arkansas to make national championship noise in either of those years, beginning in 2024, it looks like that's going to change.The Grumpy Grandaddy of them all, the Rose Bowl, finally decided to stop telling schools not in the Pac 12 and Big Ten to get off its lawn, thus clearing the way for a 12-team college football playoff.The inaugural first round will begin the weekend before Christmas in 2024 with teams seeded Nos. 5 through 12 playing Riley Ridley Jersey the first weekend before the top four teams join them in Week 2.But what if the NCAA had gone Buster Skrine Jersey with a 12-team playoff from the outset instead of beginning with the BCS title games that eventually evolved into the current four-team playoffs? How might that have shaken out for the Razorbacks?After losing to No. 1 LSU to close the regular season, Arkansas fell to No. 6 in the country once the championship games were all settled. This would have placed the Razorbacks against the No. 11 seed.Arkansas would have face an 11-2 Virginia Tech team that year. That would have meant a showdown with a Hokies team that was blown out twice by No. 21 Clemson before closing the year with a lo s to No. 13 Michigan in the Sugar Bowl.The games would have shaken out like this:No. 5 Oregon vs. No. 12 Baylor No. 6 Arkansas vs. No. 11 Virginia Tech No. 7 Boise St. vs. No. 10 Wisconsin No. 8 Kansas St. vs. No. 9 South Carolina Had Arkansas won, the Hogs would have faced an Oklahoma St. team that was a double-overtime lo s to Iowa St. from being undefeated. This included an eventual win over No. 4 Stanford in the Fiesta Bowl.While that sounds daunting for one of the most talented Arkansas teams to ever take the field, it should be noted that the Cowboys struggled to take down Kansas St., 52-45; the same Wildcats team the Razorbacks easily dispatched in the Cotton Bowl back when bowl games still kinda mattered.While it would have been a fun ride, things Tarik Cohen Jersey would have most likely ended where the SEC season began, with a lo s to Alabama that would have propelled the Hogs to a national version of the SEC West standings with them at No. 3 behind LSU and Alabama once again.This particular year is one Arkansas fans will never forget.When the BCS rankings came out in Week 10, the first year college football set out on the grand experiment of having an actual national champion, an 8-0 Razorback team in its first year under Houston Nutt, had climbed to No. 7 heading into its showdown with No. 1 Tenne see.Things were rolling along swimmingly. All Arkansas had to do was run out the clock and take down Mi si sippi State the following week and the Hogs were going to be an undefeated SEC West champion bound for the SEC championship game.That was when Brandon Burlsworth accidentally stepped on quarterback Clint Stoerner's foot on 2nd & 12 with 1:47 to play.Had Arkansas been fortunate enough for Stoerner to simply fall to the ground, the Razorbacks likely would have escaped. However, the typically reliable signal caller tried to keep his balance using the football and lost control, allowing Tenne see to recover at the Arkansas 44 with the Hogs clinging to a 24-22 lead.Travis Henry then mercile sly pounded the Razorback defense with big run after big run before the Volunteers put it away with a touchdown.Arkansas fell to No. 9 and would have been in position to make the theoretical playoff had Nutt not decided to put his kicker in mothballs for a week, leading to a 22-21 upset at the hands of Mi si sippi St.The lo s not only cost the Razorbacks a rematch with Tenne see in the SEC championship game, it dropped them to No. 13 in the final BCS rankings, which means there's no need to look for Arkansas in the 1998 brackets below as the Hogs would be William Perry Jersey first team out.The games would have shaken out like this:No. 5 UCLA vs. No. 12 Virginia No. 6 Texas A&M vs. No. 11 Nebraska No. 7 Arizona vs. No. 10 Tulane No. 8 Florida vs. No. 9 Wisconsin While 1998 might be a surprise to Arkansas fans as far as the Razorbacks mi sing a 12-team playoff, the 2006 season might be a surprise in the other direction as the Hogs squeeze in this theoretical rewriting of history.This was the year where the Houston Nutt, Gus Malzahn, Springdale Five drama overshadowed everything in a season that began with USC hanging half a hundred on Arkansas before a 3-game losing streak to Top 10 teams that included an upset lo s to No. 9 LSU, a defeat in the SEC championship game against Tim Tebow and future national champion Florida, and a disappointing 17-14 lo s to Bret Bielema's Wisconsin team in the Capital One Bowl back when Big Ten teams couldn't buy a win against SEC schools.Because of how negatively that season is viewed, it probably wasn't top of mind when fans think about what years may have been a playoff po sibility. Despite tumbling from the No. 5 spot in the final week of the regular season, Arkansas finished No. 12 in the final BCS standings used to determine bowl a signments back then.This means Arkansas gets in. However, the fates were kind by not allowing a playoff system to be in place at the time as Nutt would have led his dysfunctional locker room against No. 5 USC for the second time that year, this time at USC.The games would have shaken out like this:No. 5 USC vs. Trey Burton Jersey No. 12 Arkansas No. 6 Louisville vs. No. 11 Notre Dame No. 7 Wisconsin vs. No. 10 Oklahoma No. 8 Boise St. vs. No. 9 Auburn Of course, it should be noted that one of the most iconic moments in college football history, the Boise St. Fiesta Bowl upset of Oklahoma followed by a marriage proposal by a player on the field, would not have happened.While most fans remember the 2011 season because of the Top 5 finish, it's often forgotten that Arkansas managed two Top 10 finishes in back-to-back seasons.In 2010, the mighty Petrinos rounded out the season at No. 8 in what would have been their greatest opportunity to win a nationa