Arkansas basketball regular-season goal: Go for two

College basketball season is here, which means we get to talk about a sport in which Arkansas is really good and is expected to contend for the SEC championship and the Final Four. We don't have to talk about football every single day. Not now. Isn't that a relief? 

Everyone naturally wants to be No. 1 in anything. Shoot for the best and let the cards fall where they may. Arkansas will give it the ol' college try this season, and John Calipari has a roster with the raw talent to do something special. Maybe if it all works out, Arkansas can win the SEC in 2027 and get a No. 1 seed in the 2027 NCAA Tournament. There's nothing wrong in trying to do that. However, expectations should always be realistic and should carry a fundamentally honest posture. The Cleveland Browns can hope to win the AFC North, for example, but it shouldn't be expected. The Atlanta Hawks can hope to win the NBA Eastern Conference title, but it shouldn't be expected. Expectations and hopes are not the same thing. Setting unreasonable expectations only sets up a fan base for frustration, and that doesn't help the community maintain a good relationship with the team or the coaching staff.

So, what is a reasonable expectation for Arkansas in the college basketball regular season? Note we're not talking about March Madness, because that frankly is a different conversation. We will get to March and see how well the Hogs are playing by then. We will see where they are seeded and what kind of bracket they get in the NCAA Tournament. That conversation can wait. The regular season sets the table for March. In this journey from early November through the SEC season - before Selection Sunday and the unveiling of the brackets - what should be the expectation for Arkansas?

From our vantage point, it seems simple enough: Be better than every team other than Florida.

Are we conceding too much here? We don't think so. Florida always made sense as the national preseason No. 1 team as soon as it became clear the Gators were bringing everyone back from last season's team, which won the SEC regular-season title and was a No. 1 seed in March. It's very difficult to sit here and expect Arkansas' bunch of (thank you Dick Vitale) diaper dandies to be every bit as good as Florida over a full SEC season. That doesn't seem like a realistic expectation. Arkansas certainly can finish No. 2 in the conference. Florida is a superteam. Everyone else has question marks and can be beaten. If Arkansas finishes second in the SEC, the Hogs would very likely get a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, and no worse than No. 3. They would be in position to make a run to the Elite Eight and at least get a chance to play for a long-hoped return to the Final Four.

That's what Arkansas needs to do. Beating Florida will be a monumental task. Beating out everyone else in the SEC seems entirely doable ... so the Razorbacks need to do it and set themselves up to make the Elite Eight, which would be a step above the past two Sweet 16 seasons.

John Calipari will have some difficult moments with an extremely young team. Expecting Arkansas to be the No. 1 seed in both the SEC and NCAA Tournaments just doesn't feel sensible. Being the No. 2 seed in both tournaments? That instantly feels like something this team is capable of, so let's see it happen.