There is a popular notion that what Arkansas does against Alabama is a good indicator of how the Razorbacks will fare the rest of the football season.

History has a lot to do with this idea. In its 16 previous seasons as a member of the SEC, Arkansas has opened league play against Alabama nine times.

Even in the beginning, when Arkansas played its first four SEC openers against fellow newcomer South Carolina, the Crimson Tide loomed as the Razorbacks’ second conference opponent and more of a realistic measuring stick.

Beating South Carolina, as Arkansas did in its first two SEC seasons, simply didn’t guarantee success. The Hogs proved that by winning just five other SEC games — combined — in 1992 and 1993, their first two years in the league.

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Alabama, meanwhile, gave Arkansas a better feel of for its place within the league, beating the Razorbacks in each of their first three meetings. Those three seasons also happened to end with Arkansas sitting at home during bowl season.

When Arkansas finally broke through and beat Alabama, 20-19 in 1995, the Razorbacks went on to win their first SEC West title. They also played in the SEC Championship Game for the first time.

In the 12 meetings since 1995, though, beating or losing to Alabama hasn’t been a precise barometer for Arkansas’ success. While Arkansas has a combined record of 43-30 in the six seasons in which it beat Alabama, the Razorbacks are a combined 40-33 in the six seasons in which they have lost to the Tide.

In 1997, for example, Arkansas squeaked out a 17-16 victory at Alabama in the SEC opener. At the end of a 4-7 season that followed, however, Coach Danny Ford was sent packing.

Arkansas also beat Alabama in 2000, only to finish 6-6 with an embarrassing loss to UNLV at the Las Vegas Bowl. In 2004, Arkansas beat Alabama before eventually stumbling to a 5-6 finish.

In 1999, conversely, Arkansas dropped its SEC opener at Alabama, but eventually went 8-4 with memorable victories over Tennessee and Texas. And in 2002, the Razorbacks got run over by the Tide before later going on a six-game winning streak capped by the Miracle on Markham.

But what playing Alabama early in the season has done for the most part, regardless of the final score, is give Arkansas a taste of what it can expect over the remainder of the season. That’s because the Tide rolls out big-boy players with big-boy talent almost without fail.

To put it another way, a team that can hang with Alabama is going to be able to hang with most SEC teams on most days. If a team can’t hang with Alabama, the Floridas, Auburns and LSUs most likely will be trouble, too.

All of this is a long way of saying Arkansas’ history with Alabama is what makes their game Saturday so interesting on so many levels. If Arkansas has any chance of being a more complete and effective football team this season, it starts with what goes down five days from now at Reynolds Razorback Stadium.

Yes, Arkansas is still adjusting to new coaches, new schemes, new mind-sets.

Yes, several potentially key players are just now becoming available for various reasons.

And, yes, that stable of talented freshmen will continue to get better with each passing week.

But when Western Illinois and Louisiana-Monroe expose as much as they exposed while pushing Arkansas to the brink of humbling losses, concerns about surviving the SEC portion of the schedule are real.

For starters: Arkansas’ offensive line is supposed to be a team strength, yet it has had a handful of breakdowns in each game.

We still don’t know if the Razorbacks’ smallish running backs can withstand a season’s worth of pounding. Arkansas’ defensive line, another supposed strength, hasn’t been as stout as expected. The defense’s back seven clearly is a work in progress. The Razorbacks special teams have been everything except special.

Bottom line: Hurricane Ike gave Arkansas a jump-start on preparing for Alabama, and we’ll find out Saturday if the extra time helped. We’ll probably even know by halftime.

In other words, how the Hogs handle the Tide will give us our best clue to date as to how the rest of the season will unfold.