The Arkansas Razorbacks don't have a game today, thus giving those frustrated by last week's 28-7 loss to TCU a chance to see other college teams. UAPB is at Arkansas State. ASU, unlike the Razorbacks, will occasionally play other Arkansas schools. In Conway, the University of Central Arkansas hosts Southeastern Louisiana. And all six of the state's Great American Conference teams host squads from Oklahoma. That means two games in Arkadelphia along with contests in Magnolia, Searcy, Monticello and Russellville.
This just might be the day when dismayed Hog fanatics find an enjoyable, less expensive alternative. They might realize that watching college football can be fun at a place where the parking is free, the tickets are cheap, donations to the scholarship fund aren't required and the concession lines aren't long. Blind allegiance can have its consequences.
On Monday, with Razorback fans still seething about the awful performance against TCU, University of Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long addressed several hundred people during a meeting of the Little Rock Touchdown Club. Long confirmed that the UA will honor its current contract and play a Southeastern Conference opponent in 2018 at Little Rock's War Memorial Stadium. There were never serious talks about buying out the contract. The real news came when Long stated flatly that the decision as to whether to play games in Little Rock past 2018 will be up to the UA Board of Trustees.
Those who debate this issue ad nauseam on social media tend to focus on the football aspects. What they fail to understand is that the trustees must make a decision based on things far bigger than football. The football question has been settled, you see. We're 17 years removed from what originally was known as the Great Stadium Debate.
The "move all the games to Fayetteville" crowd had us believe that playing additional games there would help with recruiting and lead to more victories on the field. If they had been right, teams that play only one game in Little Rock now as opposed to three Little Rock games back then should be far better. That's not the case, though, for a football program that's mired in mediocrity. The facts are clear: The change hasn't helped from a football standpoint.
That means that trustees can now make a decision based on state unity, the ability to recruit students statewide, the growth of alumni support and related issues. Long said he hopes a decision will be made in the next three to five months.
I think the trustees understand that Arkansas is rapidly becoming two states within a state--a state of counties doing relatively well economically versus a state of counties losing population. From 2000 to 2010, 39 Arkansas counties gained population and 36 lost population. When the 2020 census occurs, it likely will show that a majority of Arkansas counties lost population from 2010-20 even though the state's overall population increased.
For better or worse, Razorback athletics (football in particular) is one of the strongest unifying forces we have, along with a quality statewide newspaper and a popular governor. Even though he was raised in the far northwest corner of the state, Gov. Asa Hutchinson understands that. Hutchinson has made it clear that he would like to see Razorback football games in Little Rock continue.
Those who argue that teams such as Alabama and Ole Miss no longer play games in their state's largest cities fail to mention that the tradition of such games is far deeper in Arkansas. The Razorbacks have played at least once annually in the capital city since 1933. These games are now a part of the state's cultural fabric, giving families from the Delta of east Arkansas and pine woods of south Arkansas a tie to the flagship university in the Ozarks.
Long said at one point in his speech Monday that "I wasn't from here. I needed to listen and learn." Later, when asked directly about Little Rock games, he said: "I've been assessing these things for 10 years."
Hopefully his decade-long assessment has helped him realize that, in the end, this is about so much more than football. Does he really want to rip that cultural fabric to obtain a little additional revenue for a program that's rolling in money, especially when it's clear that reducing the number of Little Rock games didn't lead to more wins? Surely trustees who were born and reared in Arkansas understand.
Surely they can see that an annual game in Little Rock against a good opponent--with heavy promotion--will lead to the establishment of allegiances between Arkansans from those have-not counties and the state's flagship university. Surely they understand that such a game will unite people, while a decision to end an 85-year-old tradition after 2018 will further divide this already divided state. The Razorback Foundation now has two full-time employees based in Little Rock, so it's obvious that someone understands that support from outside Northwest Arkansas matters, at least when it comes to raising money.
One alternative being discussed is to play the SEC game on Thanksgiving weekend in Little Rock every other year, with a nonconference game in the years when the Thanksgiving weekend game is on the road. The question now is whether a majority of trustees will do what's best for the state as a whole or blindly walk in lockstep to the beat of the almighty Hog as previous boards unfortunately have done.
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Senior Editor Rex Nelson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He's also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.
Editorial on 09/16/2017