FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas officials can already be in contact with the SEC office regarding their bowl preferences, and the same is true for the "Pool of 6" bowls linked to the SEC.
However, none of those preferences are guaranteed and none of the bowl pairings for SEC teams will be locked in until after the SEC Championship Game between Alabama and Missouri on Saturday.
Bowling Hogs
Arkansas’ bowl results since 1989:
2012 COTTON BOWL
Arkansas 29, Kansas State 16
2011 SUGAR BOWL
Ohio State 31, Arkansas 26*
2010 LIBERTY BOWL
Arkansas 20, East Carolina 17, OT
2008 COTTON BOWL
Missouri 38, Arkansas 7
2007 CAPITAL ONE BOWL
Wisconsin 17, Arkansas 14
2003 INDEPENDENCE BOWL
Arkansas 27, Missouri 14
2002 MUSIC CITY BOWL
Minnesota 29, Arkansas 14
2002 COTTON BOWL
Oklahoma 10, Arkansas 3
2000 LAS VEGAS BOWL
UNLV 31, Arkansas 14
2000 COTTON BOWL
Arkansas 27, Texas 6
1999 FLORIDA CITRUS BOWL
Michigan 45, Arkansas 31
1995 CARQUEST BOWL
North Carolina 20, Arkansas 10
1991 INDEPENDENCE BOWL
Georgia 24, Arkansas 15
1990 COTTON BOWL
Tennessee 31, Arkansas 27
1989 COTTON BOWL
UCLA 17, Arkansas 3
*Ohio State was later forced to vacate the victory by the NCAA.
SOURCE UA football media guide
The Razorbacks (6-6), in contention for their first postseason game since the 2012 Cotton Bowl, are one of 12 bowl-eligible SEC teams and are most likely headed to either the the Independence Bowl on Dec. 27, the Liberty Bowl or the Texas Bowl on Dec. 29, or the Birmingham Bowl on Jan. 3.
However, the result of the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta's Georgia Dome could have a bearing on where the Razorbacks are invited.
A victory by Missouri in the title game could knock the SEC out of the inaugural four-team College Football Playoff, which will be chosen by the 12-member selection committee chaired by Arkansas Athletic Director Jeff Long. A victory by Alabama, which remained No. 1 in the CFP rankings on Tuesday night, would solidify a spot in the playoff for the Crimson Tide.
The national semifinals this season will take place Jan. 1 in the Sugar Bowl and the Rose Bowl, and the CFP championship game will be Jan. 12 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
The SEC's bowl selections after the playoff will be made by multiple entities: the CFP selection committee, the SEC office and a few of the bowls.
There is no limit on the number of teams from one conference that can be chosen to compete in the other CFP-paired bowls, which are the Orange, Cotton, Peach and Fiesta this year. All of those bowls will be played Dec. 31 with the exception of the Cotton Bowl, which is Jan. 1.
The final rankings of the CFP selection committee have a direct bearing on the matchups they create for those bowls. The SEC champion is guaranteed a spot among those bowls, meaning a Missouri victory Saturday would place the Tigers in the top tier of bowls if they fail to make the four-team playoff. If Alabama wins the SEC championship, the highest-ranked remaining SEC teams -- a pool likely to include Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Georgia and Missouri -- would have a shot at the top-tier bowls.
One twist among those CFP bowls occurs with the Orange Bowl, which has a contractual obligation to take the Atlantic Coast Conference champion, or a replacement from the ACC if the champion is in the playoff, for one of its slots.
"The opponent in the Orange would be the highest-ranked non-champion from the SEC or the Big Ten or Notre Dame," SEC associate executive commissioner Mark Womack said.
After the CFP bowls are are filled, the Citrus Bowl gets its choice of a bowl-eligible SEC team to pair against an ACC team.
That selection leads in to the newest wrinkle, what the SEC is referring to as the Pool of 6 bowls consisting of the Outback, TaxSlayer, Music City, Liberty, Belk and Texas bowls. SEC Commissioner Mike Slive and his staff will pick the SEC representatives for those bowls after hearing the preferences from the bowls and the eligible SEC teams.
If two SEC teams play in the CFP selected bowls, there will be six SEC teams with seven or more victories in addition to Alabama and Missouri -- Mississippi State (10-2), Georgia (9-3), Ole Miss (9-3), Auburn (8-4), LSU (8-4) and Texas A&M (7-5) -- available for the Citrus and the Pool of 6. That would likely mean only one of the six-victory SEC teams among Arkansas (6-6), Florida (6-5), South Carolina (6-6) and Tennessee (6-6) would be included in the Pool of 6 selections.
The others would be available for the Birmingham Bowl, which has the next pick, and the Independence Bowl, which makes the SEC's final selection.
Womack said he expects SEC teams to be attractive to bowls that cannot fill their slots if the SEC's 12 bowl-eligible teams cannot all fit into the available bowls.
Sports on 12/03/2014