It's common knowledge that teams in the SEC are tough. The last two Bowl Championship Series champions reside in the greatest conference in the country and the 12-school roster of dominance makes more money than any other collegiate collection.

How else is it the best ? The Heisman winner and runner-up last season were from the SEC. Every year in the SEC, teams beat up each other. No. 1 teams fall and middle-tier programs rise.

This year will be no different and the expectation is for the conference to place four teams - Auburn, Florida, Georgia and LSU - in the Top 10 in the preseason polls. And Florida and Georgia will get plenty of nods to win the national championship.

The conference is the pinnacle of college sports. No league has more hardware and viewership than the South's sports conglomerate.

But there is a chink in the SEC's armor. The conference's teams sidestep challenges and marquee matchups in non-conference games. Division I-AA teams and Division I cupcakes line the home schedules early in the season.

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Almost every school in the SEC does it. They pay big bucks for the small schools to travel to the big school, take their whipping and enjoy counting their money on the ride home.

And Arkansas is at the top of that list, according to one study.

A Web site, the National Championship Issue, alerts that Arkansas has done the worst job of the 12 teams in the SEC over the last 10 years scheduling teams from BCS conferences.

According to the detailed and foolproof study, 11. 8 percent of Arkansas' nonconference games since 1998 have come against BCS opponents. That's four out of 34 non-conference games in the last 10 seasons. That low number ranks Arkansas 115 th out of 116 schools when it comes to scheduling BCS foes. And in case you were wondering, Minnesota, which scheduled two BCS schools in 10 years, was at the top of the bottom 10 schools to schedule a BCS opponent.

In the bottom 10, just three schools wary of scheduling big-name schools in non-conference games have made appearances in BCS bowls. Kansas, Oregon State and Alabama are the lone rangers in that category. Take out Kansas' magical run last season, the last BCS bowl appearance for any of those teams came in 2000 when Oregon State beat hapless Notre Dame, 41-9, in the Fiesta Bowl.

As for teams in the big conferences that scheduled more non-conference games with BCS conference opponents, they fared much better in postseason appearances. Seven out of the top 10 teams to schedule nonconference games with BCS schools have played in a BCS bowl game in the last 10 years.

So what am I getting at here, you ask ? Well, skip all the numbers and math jargon because it's rather simple: Teams in the larger conferences with tougher schedules have more success than the schools who drive in the right lane rather than the left.

And Arkansas, like it or not, has been one of the slowest cars driving in the right lane.

Here are some more numbers to digest.

The Razorbacks' nonconference opponents averaged just 3. 8 wins a year during that 10-year period. The Hogs have also played four teams in Division I-AA and are scheduled to open the 2008 season against Western Illinois, yet another Division I-AA school - or Football Championship Subdivision program as they're calling them now.

However your label it, the fact is this: The Razorbacks will have officially played more games against Division I-AA schools (5 ) than BCS schools (4 ) after Aug. 30.

The lackluster scheduling has resulted in a lack of a BCS postseason presence and the Hogs, no matter how good they were the last two seasons, haven't won a bowl game the last four campaigns.

But the Razorbacks are about to make some huge strides. A 10-year series with Texas A & M will start in 2009 at the Dallas Cowboys'new stadium in Arlington, Texas. The schools will reportedly receive about $ 5 million a year for playing in the game, with the option to extend the series with five, fouryear options.

And don't forget the road trip to Texas this season and the Longhorns'return to Fayetteville tentatively set for 2014. Then there's the longrumored scheduling of TCU.

This season, Arkansas' tough SEC slate is nothing to sneeze at. Highlighted with Florida, LSU and Auburn, the schedule is definitely stronger than years past for first-year coach Bobby Petrino.

College football guru Phil Steele ranked the Hogs' schedule in 2008 as the second-toughest in the nation, according to his latest preseason magazine.

Again, there is some progress.

Recently, the right steps have been taken by UA officials to jettison the Razorbacks to the next level. They've hired a proven coach that has won a BCS bowl game and the nonconference schedule is shaping up to be tougher than not in the future.

For the next 10 years, the Hogs will have at least one BCS conference opponent among their four non-conference games.

Every few years there will be two.

Some will still argue that playing in the SEC is tough enough and that the scheduling of " cupcakes" in the non-conference slate is OK. But, as mentioned above, schools that don't shy away from big-time opponents are usually the ones reaping the postseason benefits.

Arkansas won't be at the bottom for long.

Brandon Marcello is a sports writer for the Northwest Arkansas Times and regularly updates The Slophouse, a blog covering the Razorbacks at www.wholehogsports.com.