Reports are coming out that three players have been suspended from the Liberty Bowl for missing curfew last night.

@RazorBloggers

Then later Trey Schapp reported via @trey1037TheBuzz

later confirmed that the players suspended are Matt Harris, Wendel Davis and Marques Wade by @ArkSports360

Sure, it’s not Arkansas Razorback related, but interesting nonetheless.  Adam Jones, son of former SMU Running Back Craig James has uploaded a video of the room he was locked in by Mike Leach.  Leach was fired today by Texas Tech after being suspended on Monday.

Here is the video.

What is the basis for even considering teams ranked 3 through 8 or 16 in the NCAA Football National Championship mix? Are there really 16 teams or even 8 teams who persevere each year who are worthy to be THE NATIONAL CHAMPION?

This round, arguments don’t count. Throw opinions to the wind, and logic alone isn’t sufficient. Only facts which support considering teams ranked 3 through 8 or 16 for the Football National Championship will work here and then interpretation of them is fair.

Unless there’s some altruistic purpose in expansive inclusion of football teams, the ultimate goal of any bracket ought to be making it large enough to include eventual No. 1 and No. 2 teams — within reason.

FOR THE 30 YEARS PRIOR TO THE BCS, from the A.P. Poll:

16 teams who were No. 1 at the end of the regular season were No. 1 after the bowl games,

For those progressives who believe the BCS is an unworkable mess which should be scrapped unceremoniously in favor of a playoff, your arguments are nice and have many valid points. Although a college football playoff measure has apparently made it out of a U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee yesterday, the proponents of a playoff would get more mileage out of having it die procedurally rather than enduring a losing vote. University Presidents usually have direct lines to congressional representatives and will be heard. University Presidents control whether the BCS exists, absent legislation to the contrary. In the event you’re wondering, this post began before the legislative events.

Without taking a lengthy political detour, at least one trillion reasons exist as to why Congress should concern themselves with other matters, and if other legislation makes it through Congress, one trillion more will appear. Two trillion dollars is enough to make 1 out of every 150 men, women and children in the U.S. instant millionaires. For the BCS purpose, University Presidents are the better representatives with the power to deal with this issue.

Don’t hang up here because you think this is simply one more inequitable proposal. It incorporates much of what people want from a playoff into the current structure, but you need to consider it as a whole.

This post makes some tenuous assumptions that the reader has some knowledge of universities as institutions of learning, some idea of how university systems work (a few conversations with university administrators about any matter is adequate here), an inkling of the importance of tradition to universities, some history of the bowl system, a good grasp on why the BCS was created, and a really good grasp on the inner workings of the BCS rankings.

Paul Petrino

Reports started coming out about half an hour ago that Arkansas Offensive Coordinator Paul Petrino would be joining Ron Zook’s staff at Illinois.

Paul is currently believed to be on his way back to Fayetteville to think things over after receiving an offer of $450-$500,000 from Illinois.

Arkansas Sports 360 “Arkansas offensive coordinator Paul Petrino is expected to take a similar position at Illinois.”

NWAHomepage.com “Petrino will be named to the Illini coaching staff as early as Monday”

IlliniHQ.com “Illinois hiring Paul Petrino as offensive coordinator”

WholeHogSports.com “Paul Petrino to leave Arkansas for Illinois, similar position”

HailToTheOrange.com “Illinois is expected to hire Arkansas offensive coordinator Paul Petrino”

MUSports.com “there were a lot of questions about Petrino being in his brother Bobby’s shadow”

A while back I talked with SharpTusk, a blogger from SportingNews.com about making a few posts on Hog Database.  He is becoming well known around the Arkansas blogging circuit as a writer that loves football stats which makes him a perfect fit with hogdb.  He wrote a great piece last week on the SEC and below you can read a sample of his work from this weekend. I love the stats and as you will see he hit the nail on head with his analysis of the SEC Championship game.  Hopefully, we will see more and more of SharpTusk on Hog Database.

‘Bama Punches Ticket to BCS National Championship

Alabama and Florida have played seven common opponents this year. I’ve placed them in a particular order for a purpose. They are: 

Florida International 
Mississippi State
Kentucky
South Carolina
Tennessee
Arkansas
LSU

The teams are listed according to their records and then according to Sagarin’s Predictor ranking which considers points and margin of victory in its computations, unlike the BCS formula. Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas have all ended the season with 7-5 records. LSU ended at 8-4 and gets top billing while Arkansas is second by the Predictor rankings, Tennessee is third and so on. 

Ranking them in this manner makes it easier to look at performance against the Top 3 teams, Top 4 teams, Top 5 teams, etc. and places focus on arguably tougher competition and minimizing their performances against FIU. 

Statistically, Alabama and Florida are almost identical against common opponents in all offensive and defensive categories. 

But this Arkansas Razorback Fan has stared at the essence of what he sees before.. 

When you understand these teams’ Defensive numbers relative to one another as I’ve grouped them, the key to this game is obvious. Here are the details.