SEC Office Has Already Written Off Arkansas
The Southeastern Conference, at least from a corporate perspective, might have forgotten something.
Arkansas is still in the NCAA Tournament.
Those down in Birmingham might recall the Razorbacks as the team that knocked off Tennessee, Auburn and Kentucky during the regular season, and the only team still standing after a full weekend of NCAA tournament play.
If they don't remember them that way, then perhaps they remember the Hogs as carrying the SEC's reputation into the Elite last year while coming away as the only team in the whole tournament capable of giving Baylor a run for its money.
Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports
Once all the SEC darlings got eliminated, full attention turned to women's sports and football. With the exception of a single courteous notification that Arkansas had advanced to the Sweet 16 four days ago, Arkansas has been ignored.
Even Jimmy Dykes, who previously coached at Arkansas and has called numerous Razorback games for the SEC Network this season, took to Twitter to write off the SEC's basketball season as if Arkansas basketball had been multiversed into that SEC Shorts skit about Arkansas football disappearing – except this is real life.
However, the SEC Network itself may have issued a blow that hit even harder.
The social media team at ESPN didn't inadvertently forget Arkansas was still playing. They knew, but couldn't be bothered to dig up material for a graphic from this year.
The SEC office has added to the massive pile of actions nationally indicating that Arkansas is a team to ignore because Gonzaga is just too good and the Razorbacks are just too irrelevant.
Somewhere in San Francisco there is a white board with half inch indentions as Eric Musselman adds the lack of respect from a conference that is supposed to be loyal to all its members when the time comes to take on other conferences to the board.
It's one thing to hear it from the rest of the country. It's another to feel it from what is supposed to be family.
Only three teams have brought the SEC a national championship in men's basketball – Arkansas, Kentucky and Florida. If the Razorbacks somehow wins another, there will be no need to pretend the corporate side of the SEC was there to openly support the Razorbacks along this journey.
Just switch out the "Sweet 16" on the graphic for national champs and move along once more.
As for the SEC Network, dust off something from the 1994 championship team and run it also if ESPN even happens to notice Musselman's team bring home another national title.
These entities can't ignore them now and pretend they matter then when there's something in it for them. While Arkansas fans chant "SEC! SEC!," feel free to continue with the corporate chant of "We don't see! We don't see!"
One day the Hogs will be valued conference members, and to many of the fans around the SEC, they are.
But to the people running the corporate side of the conference, the Hogs just don't matter.
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