Let me preface this column by saying that I do not think or expect that Arkansas will be victorious in Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday evening.
Everything I am about to lay out is strictly hypothetical.
That being said, if Arkansas, by either some stroke of luck or just playing the game of its life, is able to beat Alabama somehow tomorrow, the ramifications of that win would be far-reaching.
For starters, Arkansas would have thrown a complete monkey wrench in the SEC West standings with a game to play.
The Razorbacks would need a lot of other results to go their way, but winning the division would actually be a realistic proposition at that point.
In the larger sense, a win would signify that Arkansas is a nationally relevant program again.
Arkansas hasn’t been truly nationally relevant since the Bobby Petrino era in 2011 when it was ranked No. 3 in the final week of the regular season and ended the year ranked fifth.
The recruiting dividends that would be yielded from beating the Crimson Tide on their home turf would be monumental as well.
Sam Pittman has already exceeded expectations since taking over the reins in December 2019.
Becoming the first Arkansas coach since Houston Nutt to defeat Alabama would definitely raise Pittman’s stock through the roof.
Hunter Yurachek would be forced to raise his pay and he would most likely begin to attract the attention of other schools who are in need of program fixing.
At the end of the day, even if Arkansas still loses to Alabama for the 15th consecutive time, it is at least finally not completely far-fetched to think the Razorbacks could compete with and beat the Tide.