Will Arkansas make a bowl game in 2020?
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Barring a monumental upset of No. 1 Alabama on Saturday, Arkansas will finish the 2020 regular season with a 3-7 record.
That is a massive improvement for the Razorbacks considering they had won just one SEC game in the previous three seasons combined, but it still has fans wondering if it’s enough to get into a bowl game in Sam Pittman’s first season as head coach.
In a normal year, only teams with a .500 record or better are invited to bowl games, with the occasional 5-7 team also getting the nod if there aren’t enough to fill all of the slots.
However, the NCAA waived that bowl eligibility requirement back in October, making every FBS team eligible to play in a bowl game regardless of record. Because of that, the Razorbacks - by rule - could still receive a bowl invite.
That still begs the question, though, of whether or not a 3-7 record is good enough for a bowl game to extend such an invitation. In Arkansas’ case, the answer is almost certainly yes, and here’s why…
Assuming there aren't any more cancellations, the SEC has nine bowl tie-ins outside of the College Football Playoff and New Year’s Six bowls.
As things stand right now, at least three - and possibly all four - of Alabama, Florida, Texas A&M and Georgia will fill coveted spots in the playoff (Sugar and Rose Bowls) or NY6 (Cotton, Peach, Fiesta and Orange Bowls).
That leaves 10 or 11 SEC teams vying for the other nine bowls with conference tie-ins - which, according to an SEC spokesman, the conference’s “expectation is they will be filled.”
LSU announced Wednesday that it was self-imposing a bowl ban for this season, so it is eliminated from that conversation. Arkansas is also guaranteed to finish ahead of South Carolina (2-8) and Vanderbilt (0-8) in the standings, plus those schools each made a coaching change and might decline a bowl invite anyway.
That essentially locks the Razorbacks into a bowl game, as they’d be one of the seven or eight SEC programs left fighting for the nine bowl tie-ins, and then it just becomes a matter of where they’ll be sent.
The SEC previously announced a bowl selection process that has the Citrus Bowl getting the first pick after the CFP selection process, followed by the “Pool of Six” bowls working together and with the schools to make their picks, and finally, the Birmingham and Gasparilla Bowls picking from whatever is left.
When asked by HawgBeat about the process for 2020, though, the SEC could not provide any more clarity on whether or not it would follow those guidelines.
Here is a schedule of those bowls for this year (Pool of Six games denoted with an asterisk)…
~Gasparilla Bowl - Tampa, Fla. - Dec. 26, 11 a.m. CT
~Music City Bowl* - Nashville, Tenn. - Dec. 30, 2:30 p.m. CT
~Armed Forces Bowl* - Fort Worth, Texas - Dec. 31, 11 a.m. CT (replaces Las Vegas Bowl tie-in for this year)
~Liberty Bowl* - Memphis, Tenn. - Dec. 31, 3 p.m. CT
~Texas Bowl* - Houston, Texas - Dec. 31, 7 p.m. CT
~Birmingham Bowl - Birmingham, Ala. - Jan. 1, 11 a.m. CT
~Citrus Bowl - Orlando, Fla. - Jan. 1, noon CT
~Gator Bowl* - Jacksonville, Fla. - Jan. 2, 11 a.m. CT
~Outback Bowl* - Tampa, Fla. - Jan. 2, 11:30 a.m. CT
Pittman has said repeatedly that he believes his team deserves to play in a bowl game. His argument is that three SEC wins, in a normal year, is typically enough to reach bowl eligibility.
Had the Razorbacks not played a 10-game, SEC-only schedule this year, they would have had Nevada, Notre Dame, Charleston Southern and ULM on the slate. The Fighting Irish almost certainly would have beaten Arkansas, but the other three games were probable wins.
After the last two years - as Colorado State, San Jose State, North Texas and Western Kentucky taught us - fans shouldn’t assume victories, but the progress Arkansas showed this year makes it highly likely that it would have been a 6-6 season - which, for an SEC team, always results in a bowl game.
The Razorbacks playing in the postseason for the first time since 2016 will result in a nice financial boost for Pittman.
Although he won’t receive it until the 2021-22 academic year because of a department-wide deferral of incentive bonuses, Pittman is set to receive either $150,000 (for a “tier 2” bowl game, which is the “Pool of Six”) or $100,000 (for any other bowl).
With a $3 million salary, Pittman was the lowest paid coach in the SEC this year, according to USA Today’s database, even before a $250,000 pay cut for the current academic year amid the pandemic.
His agreement with Arkansas is laden with incentives, though, and a case could be made for him to receive the automatic raise built into his contract for winning a certain amount of games in the regular season.
Reaching the 6-win mark comes with a $250,000 raise, according to his contract. As mentioned above, that likely would have happened in a non-pandemic year in which Arkansas played a normal non-conference schedule.
Including the automatic one-year extension that kicks in for making a bowl game, that pay bump would amount to an additional $1.25 million over the length of his contract, which would go through the 2025 season.
The bowl situation and the impact it has on Pittman’s contract will unfold over the next several weeks, as the first-year coach is expected to have the usual end-of-year meeting with athletics director Hunter Yurachek following the season.