DALLAS — Arkansas was picked to finish 14th in the SEC in the preseason media poll, which the conference released Friday.
The Razorbacks are coming off a 4-8 season, with five of those losses coming by seven points or less. Defensive lineman Landon Jackson said the predictions are all noise.
"We really don't look into it much," Jackson said. "Whatever the media thinks about our team, it doesn't really matter because we're a whole new team... we're a much better team than the media will portray us to be."
Jackson, who led the Hogs with 13.5 tackles for loss and 6.5 sacks last year, received preseason All-SEC second-team honors. The redshirt senior was the only Arkansas player to secure preseason recognition.
"Our team isn't the same [as last year]," Jackson said. "We've got guys like Taylen [Green], nobody knows how he's going to be for our team... we don't look at [preseason predictions] because all it does is bring us down."
Media personnel covering the SEC Media Days in Dallas predicted the Razorbacks would finish above Mississippi State and Vanderbilt. They also picked Georgia to beat Texas in the 2024 SEC Championship.
The SEC champion will be crowned on Dec. 7 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. With Texas and Oklahoma joining the conference, this year will mark the first season since 1991 in which the SEC will play without divisions.
The two teams with the best overall SEC winning percentages during the eight-game regular-season conference schedule will play in the SEC Championship Game.
According to the conference, those who vote at SEC Media Days have correctly predicted the SEC champion only nine times since 1992.
2024 SEC Preseason Media Poll
SEC Champion
- Georgia (165 points)
- Texas (27 points)
- Alabama (12 points)
- Ole Miss (4 points)
- Vanderbilt (2 points)
- LSU (2 points)
- South Carolina (1 point)
Predicted order of finish
- Georgia (3,330 points)
- Texas (3,042 points)
- Alabama (2,891 points)
- Ole Miss (2,783 points)
- LSU (2,322 points)
- Missouri (2,240 points)
- Tennessee (2,169 points)
- Oklahoma (2,022 points)
- Texas A&M (1,684 points)
- Auburn (1,382 points)
- Kentucky (1,371 points)
- Florida (1,146 points)
- South Carolina (923 points)
- Arkansas (749 points)
- Mississippi State (623 points)
- Vanderbilt (293 points)