The first College Football Playoff (CFP) rankings of the 2025 season sent a clear message: the SEC still runs college football. Even with two Big Ten teams, Ohio State and Indiana, sitting atop the standings, the depth of the SEC was impossible to ignore. The conference placed six teams in the top 12 and nine in the top 25, reinforcing its reputation as the toughest league in the nation.
That kind of dominance might not mean much for teams outside the current playoff race or does it? For Arkansas, a program currently in the middle of a coaching search, this year’s CFP rankings could actually serve as a major recruiting tool and a reason for optimism about the future for the candidates being considered for the coaching job.