FAYETTEVILLE - Arkansas is

in a most awkward position as

it awaits its NCAA Tournament judgment. The Razorbacks (34-22 ) are ranked among the top 30 in the Ratings Percentage Index, a component used by the NCAA Selection Committee to help choose the 64-team field. Arkansas won 14 games in the SEC, one of the nation's toughest conferences. But Arkansas, which has made the NCAA Tournament in each of Coach Dave Van Horn's first five seasons, has one factor going against it as it waits in Fayetteville this week for Monday's NCAA Tournament announcement. The Hogs did not make the SEC Tournament for the first time in Van Horn's tenure, finishing a half-game behind South Carolina and Mississippi, the seventh and eighth seeds in the tournament.

Even in 2005, when Arkansas was on the NCAA bubble after going 13-17 in the SEC, the Hogs made the SEC Tournament, though they made a quick twoloss exit to finish the season 37-20.

Van Horn was supremely confident in 2005 that the Hogs were going to make the NCAA Tournament. A 24-1 nonconference record was Van Horn's trump card in 2005, just as an extremely difficult nonconference schedule is today.

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"We played a good nonconference schedule [in 2005 ], but we didn't play anywhere near as tough a [non ] league schedule as we had this year," Van Horn said. Van Horn exuded confidence in 2005 despite a five-game season-ending losing streak, but he isn't showing that type of faith in 2008. Not finishing among the top eight teams in a 12-team conference will do that to a coach. "It's really hard to say," Van Horn said Monday of Arkansas'chances. "I don't know what to think."

NO HOOVER, NO BID ? Typically, making it to Hoover, Ala., for the SEC Tournament is the Get Off The Bubble Free card SEC teams can flash to get into the NCAA Tournament, but the Hogs possess no such pass this year. Arkansas can't try to stockpile extra quality victories against conference rivals and must spend the next six days wondering if it's done enough.

Most damaging to Arkansas'hopes was losing 2 of 3 at lastplace Mississippi State last week to complete the regular season, which dropped it to ninth overall in the SEC standings and out of the tournament.

How does the NCAA Selection Committee justify a team's place in a 64-team national championship tournament if that team wasn't good enough to make its own tournament ?

Making the NCAA Tournament without making the SEC's is not unprecedented. Florida (2003 ), Mississippi State (2004 ) and Auburn (2005 ) made it without playing in the SEC Tournament, but that was also when the SEC was the top-rated conference in the country. "When our name popped up on the screen I wasn't totally surprised, because our RPI was pretty good," Mississippi State Coach Ron Polk said of the 2004 bid. "Arkansas is a good enough team to be in a regional, but it just happens there are a lot of teams close and it boils down to what happens in the last weekend." Mississippi State Athletic Director Larry Templeton, chairman of the NCAA Division I Baseball Selection Committee, said any team that makes the SEC Tournament is going to be given consideration for the NCAA Tournament.

"Certainly, they have an opportunity in the tournament to improve their status tremendously," Templeton told The Birmingham (Ala. ) News. "There is as much parity in our conference this year as there has ever been. This conference tournament is going to mean a bunch to a lot of people."

Unfortunately, it won't for Arkansas, which finished in a virtual three-way tie with South Carolina and Mississippi for the seventh and eighth spots. But Arkansas played one less game, and won one less, when its final game of a series at Vanderbilt was rained out and not made up.

The Razorbacks' final SEC record of 14-15 was a half-game behind 15-15 Ole Miss and South Carolina and a full game behind 15-14 Vanderbilt, all bound for the conference tournament.

"We would be going if we were 15-15 and Ole Miss wouldn't be going," Van Horn said. "We beat them 2 of 3 in their own ballpark."

But the SEC abides by a longstanding rule that teams do not make up games that can't be played in a three-game conference weekend, which certainly didn't help the Razorbacks.

It works both ways. Arkansas was helped by the rule in 2002, when weather canceled three of the Razorbacks' games and their 13-14 final record had a slightly better winning percentage than Ole Miss' 14-16. Arkansas made the SEC Tournament, which helped secure an NCAA Tournament berth and a run to the super regionals. "Weather is a part of any outside sport. Classes are on Monday," said Chuck Dunlap, associate director of media relations for the SEC and the league's baseball contact. "There simply is no way logistically and academically to make it happen."

BUBBLES, BASEBALL STYLE Most online projections had the Razorbacks as one of nine SEC teams thought to be safely in the NCAA Tournament, but that was before the Mississippi State series. Baseball America college baseball writer Aaron Fitt wrote during an online chat Monday that he still believes Arkansas will be one of nine SEC teams invited.

But just like in college basketball, bubble teams like Arkansas, UCLA and Clemson from power conferences will be rooting for midmajor teams like Elon of the Southern Conference, UNC-Wilmington of the Colonial and Coastal Carolina of the Big South to win their conference tournaments.

It might also help Arkansas if South Carolina and Mississippi get eliminated quickly in the SEC Tournament. The Razorbacks won 5 of 6 meetings with the Gamecocks and Rebels, so if those teams don't win a game, it adds intrigue.

"I hope that we're OK, as Arkansas is, and with the quality of our conference we're all in good shape," Gamecocks Coach Ray Tanner said. "But it behooves you to play well at the SEC Tournament."

Another point to consider is the overall strength of the SEC, which has been ranked as the top conference frequently in the past two decades. But SEC teams have not won a game in the College World Series since 2005 and the conference trails the Atlantic Coast Conference, Pacific-10 and Big 12 in the RPI. All of those leagues had winning records in head-to-head matchups with the SEC in 2008.

"It's an unusual year everywhere," Templeton told The Birmingham News. "The Big 12 is all bunched up, the Pac-10 is all bunched up, the SEC is bunched up. So there are some teams in other parts of the country that have played pretty good that normally are not in this tournament that are going to get a strong, strong look this time. Whether [the SEC gets ] eight teams or six teams, I don't know that anybody is in a position to make that statement yet."