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It seems oddly appropriate that Arkansas finally gave the green light for most of its sports to schedule Arkansas State amidst a global pandemic.
In a move some likely thought wouldn’t happen in their lifetime, athletics director Hunter Yurachek has expanded the Razorbacks’ policy of playing in-state schools to include Arkansas State and UCA in all sports but football, according to a report by WholeHogSports.
The announcement comes a couple of years after Yurachek loosened Arkansas’ longstanding policy against playing all such games to allow matchups with schools within the UA system - which includes Little Rock and UAPB at the Division I level.
For the time being, it appears we’ll have to wait awhile for a mythical Arkansas-Arkansas State football game at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock, but this bold decision by the Razorbacks’ AD opens the door to that possibility in the future.
Whether or not fans agree with lifting the decades-old ban on playing in-state schools like Arkansas State, it was long overdue, particularly for sports outside of football.
Dave Van Horn has subtly - and sometimes not-so-subtly - advocated for the ability to add those schools to the Razorbacks’ baseball schedule for several years.
When inclement weather at the beginning of the 2015 season left Arkansas two games shy of a full 56-game schedule, the veteran coach was asked if he’d try to add replacement games. He targeted a couple of weeks in April with open midweek dates as potential windows for games, but finding an opponent proved difficult.
“The issue is Fayetteville is not easy to get to and a lot of the teams that might think about traveling, at that time of the year, nobody wants to play on the road,” Van Horn said at the time. “If it’s not on the schedule, they don’t want to go anywhere. We don’t have a lot of options.”
A quick glance at schedules for regional teams found a perfect option - a team that also had games canceled because of weather, just a 2.5-hour drive away and with a solid No. 84 RPI. Unfortunately, it was a no-go because because the school was UCA, a member of the Southland Conference located in Conway.
Two years ago, a similar situation unfolded. Arkansas had an exhibition game scheduled against Oklahoma in Norman, but weather forced it to be canceled. Instead, the Razorbacks salvaged the valuable scrimmage time by traveling to Little Rock to face the Trojans.
Considering the current state of college athletics because of the coronavirus pandemic, allowing games against In-state schools makes even more sense.
As programs across the country look for ways to cut costs and save money, Arkansas’ coaches now have four more Division I options within a 4.5-hour drive radius than the nine - Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas, Tulsa, Oral Roberts, Missouri State, Wichita State, Memphis and UMKC - available a few years ago.
Arkansas has wasted no time taking advantage of that. According to WholeHogSports, UCA will host the Razorbacks in a volleyball tournament and the Bears will participate in the indoor and outdoor track meets in Fayetteville this upcoming season.
By moving toward regional scheduling, the Razorbacks will be able to eliminate commercial airline travel, which Yurachek told WholeHogSports was the primary factor behind his decision. That has the safety benefit of student-athletes not interacting with a large number of people, but it could also lead to the financial benefit of cutting travel expenses.
That flies in the face of detractors who claim playing those in-state schools has no benefit for the Razorbacks. Inevitably, they’ll also bring up Arkansas being a one-team state - meaning virtually everyone in the state cheers and supports the Razorbacks because there are no professional teams or other large college programs.
Instead of being able to cheer for the Razorbacks and the Red Wolves or Bears or Trojans or Golden Lions, fans will be forced to pick sides. Arkansas actually - *gasp* - losing to one of those schools might cause fans to change their allegiance.
This claim is utterly ridiculous. It might have been true six or seven decades ago when the schools were still fighting for superiority, but Arkansas is firmly entrenched as the top program in the Natural State. As a member of the SEC, its resources are much more vast than their counterparts in the Sun Belt, Southland and SWAC.
In the Razorbacks’ first ever regular-season matchup with an in-state school in 2019, they welcomed Little Rock to Baum-Walker Stadium for a midweek game. Not only did the Trojans win, but they smoked Arkansas 17-7.
Earth was not sucked into a black hole. Van Horn didn’t lose his job. Fans didn’t stop coming to games. What did happen? Arkansas figured things out the ensuing weekend and eventually made it back to the College World Series for a second straight year.
Whether or not the much-debated football game between Arkansas and Arkansas State ever comes to fruition remains to be seen, but it seems more likely than ever after Friday’s decision.
Until then, this is a positive move for Arkansas and Yurachek deserves to be commended, regardless of how tightly some fans clutch their pearls.
