Arkansas, Oklahoma Almost Mirror Images Except for What Each Needs from Series

One-thousandth of a point separates two SEC teams looking to sneak into final spot for regional hosts

Arkansas outfielder Kuhio Aloy takes a glove off after reaching first base on a single during the third inning of the Razorbacks' scrimmage at Baum-Walker Stadium. | Brett Rojo-Imagn Images

When it comes to Arkansas and Oklahoma baseball, there is a lot that is the same.

Both teams wear basically the same colors when they hit the field. The Razorbacks have a .653 overall winning percentage while the Sooners are .652.

Arkansas is tied with Florida and Alabama for No. 6 in the SEC while Oklahoma is tied with Ole Miss one spot below.

They two teams even played the same weekend schedule in Arlington to open the season, then stuck around to squeeze in an additional non-conference game the following Monday.

However, even though the teams are so alike in almost every way, Oklahoma finds itself leaning heavily on its RPI rating to convince the NCAA selection committee it's a high quality team while Arkansas has been left pointing to series wins to make its argument.

As a result, the Razorbacks head into the weekend looking to claim another signature series win, but mostly want the win because it should raise an RPI rating that keeps inexplicably dropping as the Hogs keep winning. Meanwhile, the Sooners are happy to accept another boost in RPI should they win, but, more importantly, they want to be able to point to evidence of any kind that they can actually win a series against a Top 25 type team.

A 2-1 series win over Texas A&M way back in early March is all Oklahoma has to show for its efforts. Meanwhile, Arkansas has wins series wins over No. 11 Mississippi State (2-1), No. 19 Alabama (3-0) and No. 17 Ole Miss (2-1) as of last week with an opportunity to add current No. 24 Oklahoma to the collection.

Arkansas has done a solid job of trying to make its argument for a No. 1 seed by putting skins on the wall versus RPI and the hope is a series win over the Sooners would slam the door shut on how much RPI should be held against the Razorbacks. So many people get hung up on that rating, which dropped from No. 28 to No. 30 this week after the Hogs knocked off No. 17 Ole Miss in a three-game series, 2-1.

Logic says proving the perceived No. 22 team in the country is better than the one seen as the No. 17 team should earn a boost in ratings. When it came to the actual polls, that's exactly what happened.

Arkansas jumped to No. 17, making it the juicy target Oklahoma desperately needs right now. However, since the Razorbacks played and beat Northwestern State in a mid-week game, mathematical calculations were added that accounted for the strength rating of the entire Southland Conference and also every team on the Demons' non-conference schedule because RPI doesn't only factor in a team's opponents, it also heavily weighs the ability of that opponent's coach to put together a schedule of highly rated teams.

In other words, Dave Van Horn is held accountable for his opponents' opponents and how successful they are at baseball.

If Northwestern's coach can't fill a schedule with teams fighting for a spot in the NCAA regionals, Arkansas gets punished. And, as everyone would expect, the Demons only managed to find one Power Four team willing to schedule them. So, as a result, Northwestern has a schedule mostly packed with teams like Rio Grande Valley, Incarnate Word and Grambling.

Therefore, the Hogs have those teams added to their RPI schedule, accounting for 25% of the Razorbacks' RPI score. As a result, the Razorbacks take a huge hit in their RPI ranking despite collecting a massive SEC series win.

So, Arkansas is left handling what it can. It racks up series win after series win while Oklahoma lets its opponents opponents do the talking for it at No. 19 in the RPI ratings.

That's why Arkansas needs the win. The Hogs need to raise their RPI as high as possible during the final two SEC series and the SEC Tournament.

The good news is with no mid-week games left to drag them down, winning can only move the Razorbacks up going forward. As for Oklahoma, it's done well in the mid-week games and even in SEC series with the bottom part of the standings.

The Sooners just have to prove they can beat an SEC team from the upper tier of the conference in a series. Two teams come forward similar in almost every way, including the same goals.

However, only one will have the more complete resume needed after this weekend to make the argument it wants to present to the NCAA selection committee. It all gets off to an early start Friday with first pitch moving to 4 p.m. to avoid potential bad weather expected to move in during the night.

All three games will be broadcast on the ESPN streaming networks and will come with a little Hawaiian flavor. The first 1,000 fans in the stadium will get a "Hawaiian Heat" vinyl record Friday night and on Saturday, the first 2,000 to enter will receive a Wehiwa Aloy bobble head commemorating his Golden Spikes Award win.