FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas’ football team is playing the Trojans for the third consecutive season, but it’s a little different in 2007.

The Razorbacks are playing the Trojans from Troy, Ala., to open the season Saturday night, not the Southern California Trojans.

Troy is one of three Sun Belt Conference teams on Arkansas ’ schedule — along with North Texas and Florida International — that were a combined 11-26 last season.

The No. 21-ranked Razorbacks ’ other nonconference game is against Chattanooga, a Division IAA team coming off a 3-8 finish.

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Arkansas is the only SEC team not to play at least one nonconference game against a team from another Bowl Championship Series conference.

Jerry Palm of collegeBCS. com said this week he is rating the Razorbacks as having the weakest nonconference schedule among teams in the BCS conferences, which includes the SEC, Pacific-10, Big Ten, Atlantic Coast Conference, Big 12 and Big East.

“I just wrote on my Web site, how can [Arkansas ] sell this schedule to season-ticket holders with a straight face ?” Palm said.

Greg Easterbrook of ESPN. com accused Arkansas of playing “the phoniest schedule” in college football.

“Maybe next year Arkansas will schedule a game against the Dillon Panthers,” Easterbrook wrote, referring to a fictional high school team on the television show Friday Night Lights. “At home, of course.”

Razorbacks Coach Houston Nutt said he doesn’t ever worry about the schedule and that he believes it’s plenty tough with eight SEC opponents, including three ranked in The Associated Press Top 25 poll.

“I’m partial, but I believe the SEC is the best conference in America, and Troy is very, very good, too,” Nutt said. “They have no fear.”

Troy, which won the Sun Belt title last year and finished 8-5 with a 41-17 victory over Rice in the New Orleans Bowl, appears to be Arkansas’ toughest nonconference game.

“Troy is semicompetent. They’re one of the better teams in the Sun Belt,” Palm said. “But let’s face it, that’s a I-AA conference playing at I-A. You don’t really want to hang your hat on that, but that’s what Arkansas is doing.”

The previous four years, the Razorbacks played home-andhome series against Texas (2003 and 2004 ) and USC (2005 and 2006 ). Texas comes back on the schedule for 2008 and 2009, with TCU being added in 2012.

“I think when you look at nonconference scheduling, you have to look at it over a period of time and not just in a oneyear glance,” sad Kevin Trainor, Arkansas’ associate athletic director for external affairs. “If you look at it from over a seven-year period, we’re going to have pretty strong nonconference representation with Texas or USC in six of those years.”

Arkansas fifth-year senior guard Robert Felton said the players get excited about nonconference games such as Texas and USC, but that there hasn’t been any talk about disenchantment with this season’s schedule.

“I guess that’s just how the schedule worked out this year,” Felton said. “I think we’ve still got a great schedule and we know Troy will be tough.

“ If we come out lollygagging, they’ll beat us and embarrass us on our own field. We can’t take any team for granted, even if they’re not ranked.”

Arkansas, like many BCS conference schools, likes to play as many home games as possible for financial reasons. Because the Razorbacks are playing at Texas in 2008, Trainor said it was important to have eight home games this season, making it difficult to schedule another team that would require a return game.

Further complicating Arkansas’ scheduling is playing home games in Fayetteville and Little Rock.

“There are a lot of things we have to work out along with the SEC schedule,” Trainor said. “We try and balance it out as best we can.”

Other SEC coaches said they favor scheduling marquee teams from other BCS conferences.

“Do you need to sign up four ? No,” Florida Coach Urban Meyer said. “But I think everyone should play a top-10 caliber program outside of their conference. We certainly do every year [against Florida State ], and that’s not going to change.

“ Tennessee playing Cal is good for college football. When Ohio State played Texas [the past two years ], that was good for college football. Us playing FSU every year is good.”

The No. 15 Vols open at No. 13 California on Saturday night in an ABC national telecast.

Tennessee is returning the Bears’ visit to Knoxville last season, when the Vols won 35-18.

Tennessee’s nonconference games the previous 10 years included Notre Dame, Miami, UCLA, Syracuse and Texas Tech.

“For Tennessee, I think it’s paid great dividends for us to play big intersectional games,” Vols Coach Phillip Fulmer said. “You get a lot of national exposure for recruiting, and I think opening with a game like Cal makes your summer better. The guys all know they’ve got to be ready to go from the start.”

Alabama Coach Nick Saban, whose Crimson Tide plays Florida State this season, agreed it’s a plus for SEC teams to schedule major nonconference matchups.

“Even though I think we have a great reputation in the SEC as a strong conference, in this day and age, it’s important the conference gets national exposure as well,” Saban said. “It’s our goal to try and do that with one game a year each year.”

LSU, ranked No. 2 in The Associated Press preseason poll, plays No. 9 Virginia Tech next week, but Tigers Coach Les Miles said he doesn’t believe an SEC team has to schedule a marquee nonconference game to have a shot to win the national championship.

“I think we play a conference schedule that is as strong as any, and then we have a championship game at the end of the season,” Miles said. “I certainly don’t think the SEC schools need to load up on nationally ranked opponents to get strength of schedule up.

“ It doesn’t appear to me that anybody that plays a full-slated SEC schedule needs to add strength to it.”

Palm agreed that Arkansas plays an overall strong schedule because of the SEC.

“Arkansas is going to get the chance to prove itself in the conference games,” Palm said. “But if Arkansas goes undefeated and there are two other undefeated teams, [the Razorbacks’ nonconference schedule ] will become an issue.

”And if Arkansas is among several one-loss teams [competing for a national title shot ], their nonconference schedule will hurt them.”

Auburn was 12-0 after winning the SEC Championship Game in 2004, but was left out of the BCS title game (in which USC beat Oklahoma 55-19 in a matchup of unbeatens ), and the Tigers weren’t helped by a nonconference schedule consisting of Louisiana-Monroe, The Citadel and Louisiana Tech.

The Tigers finished 13-0 after beating Virginia Tech in the Sugar Bowl and were No. 2 in the final polls behind USC.

While USC and Oklahoma were ranked 1-2 going into 2004 season and stayed there, Auburn was unranked and had to gradually climb its way through the national polls.

“I think that was a fluke when Auburn was left out [of the BCS title game ],” Nutt said. “I don’t think that will ever happen again, where an SEC team goes undefeated and doesn’t get to play for the national championship.”

Arkansas’ SEC games this season include road trips to Alabama, Ole Miss, Tennessee and LSU and a home date with Auburn.

“When you play in the SEC, you’re going to have plenty of opportunities to prove yourself on a national level,” Trainor said. “I don’t think we have to apologize for our schedule.”

Saturday Troy vs. Arkansas WHEN 6 p. m. Central WHERE Fayetteville