The Razorbacks are tied for second in the SEC standings, and the team they trail is not expected to win the conference. The Hogs have a real shot at the title.
After the midweek set of SEC basketball games, Arkansas is in very good position to win the conference title, though one team -- Florida -- is regarded as the favorite over and against the Razorbacks. (We checked the sportsbooks. UF is the market favorite with UA as the second choice.)
Here are the SEC basketball standings with just one game left in the month of January:
• Texas A&M 6-1
• Arkansas 6-2
• Florida 6-2
• Vanderbilt 5-3
• Auburn 5-3
• Kentucky 5-3
• Tennessee 4-3
• Alabama 4-3
• Georgia 4-4
• Missouri 4-4
• Ole Miss 3-4
• Mississippi State 3-5
• Texas 3-5
• South Carolina 2-6
• LSU 1-7
• Oklahoma 1-7
While Arkansas was busy fending off Oklahoma on the road, Vanderbilt took care of Kentucky on Tuesday night and Alabama hammered Missouri. On Wednesday night in the SEC, Auburn rallied to beat Texas while Florida crushed South Carolina by almost 50 points and Mississippi State won at LSU. Tennessee beat Georgia on the road in overtime. The collection of results was once again favorable for Arkansas. The Hogs are getting good fortune in the conference in the sense that other than Texas A&M, no team is winning with great consistency. Teams get hot for a little while but then level off.
Florida got cooled off by Auburn. Kentucky got cooled off by Vanderbilt. Teams in the middle of the conference are trading wins and losses and therefore can't gain a lot of traction. This is keeping Arkansas in the top three of the conference, with the Hogs trailing only a Texas A&M team which is not expected to remain on top of the league due to the fact that its SEC schedule in January has been relatively soft. A&M will play a much tougher SEC basketball slate in February. The journey is going to get a lot more rugged and difficult for the Aggies in the coming weeks.
If we are to compare only Arkansas and Florida in a two-way competition for the SEC basketball championship, the main reason Florida is viewed by the betting markets as the favorite is that the Gators have a high-end road win at Vanderbilt on their resume. Arkansas doesn't have an SEC road win of that caliber. UA will need to come up with something special on the road (most likely) to pull ahead of the Gators and earn the SEC title.
We'll have our weekend preview for January 31 coming up on Friday. Stay tuned.