Making the Grade

As noted below, today marks the start of college basketball's early signing period - and the folks over at Rivals.com have wasted absolutely no time in ranking teams' recruiting classes so far.

The Hogs clock in at No. 27 on the site's list of the top 30 classes. Decent enough, I guess. But here's the not-so-great news: Eight SEC teams made the ranking and only one - Georgia at No. 30 -is lower than Arkansas. The other conference teams to make Rivals' list: Florida at No. 5, Alabama at No. 10, Mississippi State at No. 12, LSU at No. 18, Kentucky at No. 19, and Tennessee at No. 23 (what recruit could possibly resist Bruce Pearl's patented brand of extra-wacky zaniness?).

As also noted below, I take all of this with a Rock of Gibraltar-sized grain of salt. After all, Stan Heath's recruiting classes were very well thought of.

(Speaking of Stan, our friend The Hog Blogger notes that he is up to his old tricks in Tampa; like Razorback fans everywhere, we wish Heath the best, but we have to wonder how long it will be before South Florida fans are saying something like, "He's a very nice, classy man, but ...).