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FAYETTEVILLE — In a little more than three years on the job, athletics director Hunter Yurachek has completely erased Arkansas’ longstanding policy against playing in-state schools.
The final barrier fell Wednesday morning when the Razorbacks announced they would play Arkansas State in a football game at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock during the 2025 season.
It was just one of several changes included in an amendment to the UA’s agreement with the venue. The Missouri games in 2021 and 2023 and spring football games in 2022 and 2024 will move to Fayetteville, while three FCS games - UAPB in 2021 and 2024 and Western Carolina in 2023 - and the aforementioned Arkansas State game in 2025 will be played in the state’s capital.
Speaking to the local media on a Zoom video conference, Yurachek said it was about a two-month process that began when he met with head coach Sam Pittman after the season, in which the second-year coach stressed to him the importance of playing SEC games on campus from a recruiting aspect.
That led to some informal discussions with Stacy Hurst - Secretary of the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism - and those quickly escalated after the holidays.
“One thing she made abundantly clear is if the Razorback football program was going to continue to have a presence in Little Rock at War Memorial Stadium, that she thought they needed to be meaningful games,” Yurachek said. “As we started to talk about what meaningful games look like, obviously in-state competition - starting with our game against the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff this year…and then working towards that game with Arkansas State in ’25 - are what her and I determined are meaningful games there at War Memorial Stadium.”
Having been friends with Terry Mohajir before coming to Arkansas, Yurachek said the Arkansas State athletics director has been asking him about scheduling a game since Day 1, so he was understandably excited when he finally called to get something set up.
To make the game happen in 2025, though, Mohajir had to adjust the Red Wolves’ schedule for that season. They were already under contract to play Texas A&M, so they had to find the Aggies a new opponent to open up the spot for the Razorbacks.
Considering “it was a challenging enough hurdle” to make this game happen, Yurachek said it is just a one-time game for now and not a recurring event.
As much fanfare as the announcement received, there is also a section of the fanbase that is against playing in-state schools, especially Arkansas State.
The 2025 matchup will be the first time the schools have met on the gridiron, while this year’s game against UAPB will be Arkansas’ first against an in-state school since beating Arkansas A&M - now UA-Monticello - 41-0 to end the 1944 season, nine months before the end of World War II.
Previous athletics directors John Barnhill and Frank Broyles decided against playing those games - in all sports - to create a statewide fan base that would establish Arkansas as the dominant program in the state.
Much like that decision was based on the best interests of the UA, Yurachek insisted the No. 1 factor in playing Arkansas State now was so it enabled the Razorbacks to have an extra SEC game on campus, while also acknowledging the financial benefit of replacing an FCS game with an SEC game in Fayetteville.
“I never had the opportunity to work with or get to know obviously John Barnhill or Frank Broyles and decisions that they made not to play in-state competition, and it’s no disrespect to either one of those two,” Yurachek said. “The decisions they made, I am sure they made those in what they thought was in the best interest of the Razorback athletic program at that point in time in our history.”
Yurachek said he discussed the move with Gov. Asa Hutchinson - who got a law degree from the UA in 1975 - and he was supportive of it.
Not everyone was in favor of playing Arkansas State, but luckily none of them proved to hinder the process.
“There were people that had varying opinions to mine about how we should move forward, but not to the point where they wanted to put their foot down and say this absolutely cannot happen,” Yurachek said. “Yes, there were people that disagreed with me about was this the right decision, but nobody that felt strong enough in their conviction about this that they were going to make sure it didn't happen.”
By the time Arkansas and Arkansas State play in football in 2025, the Razorbacks will have played in-state programs in all of their other sports.
The policy was first loosened in the summer of 2018, allowing matchups with fellow UA system schools UAPB and Little Rock. That led to games against both schools in several sports and the scheduling of the 2021 and 2024 football games against UAPB.
The Trojans actually crushed the Razorbacks 17-7 in a midweek baseball game during the 2019 season, providing a test case for one of the main arguments against playing such games - that Arkansas had nothing to gain from them.
“We actually lost our first game to Little Rock, but we still went on to the College World Series that year and we still had top recruiting classes,” Yurachek said. “Things didn’t fall apart across our state because the Razorbacks were competing against other schools within the state.”
Last year, Yurachek further relaxed the rules against playing in-state foes, allowing matchups with Arkansas State and Central Arkansas - the state’s DI programs not within the UA system - in all sports but football. That last exception was thrown out the window with Wednesday’s announcement.
Football is obviously the biggest sport in terms of revenue and fan interest, but Yurachek is confident that Arkansas is still firmly entrenched enough as the top program in the state that even a loss to the Red Wolves wouldn’t have that great of an influence on the pecking order.
It would be no different than losing to the likes of ULM, Colorado State, North Texas, San Jose State or Western Kentucky.
“Yes, we could lose that game, but we’re still going to be the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville,” Yurachek said. “We’re still going to be a member of the Southeastern Conference. I think we will still dominate the state in recruiting with other in-state schools in all of those sports. We play other Sun Belt schools (and) Arkansas State’s a member of the Sun Belt Conference.”
The other aspect of the amendment to the UA’s agreement with the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism is that it ensures the Razorbacks will continue playing football games at War Memorial Stadium through 2025.
Arkansas first played a football game in Little Rock in 1906 and played at least one game in the state’s capital every year since 1932 until not having one there this past season. When War Memorial Stadium opened in 1948, that became the site of those games.
Having a presence in central Arkansas has been a point of emphasis for the Razorbacks, with the baseball and men’s and women’s basketball teams playing games in North Little Rock the last several years.
“The baseball stadium over there is traditionally sold out and the basketball arena the last time our men’s team was there was sold out,” Yurachek said. “I think once our football program gets to where I know Sam Pittman is going to bring it, that War Memorial Stadium will be sold out for these games as well.”
Whether or not games continue to be played at War Memorial Stadium beyond the 2025 game against Arkansas State remains to be seen.
“We’ll just continue to evaluate what’s best for our athletic program,” Yurachek said. “If it’s best for our program to continue to grow to be in Central Arkansas, we’ll continue to be in Central Arkansas.”
The Razorbacks also have a contract to play Texas A&M at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, through the 2024 season. Yurachek said the Aggies have made it clear that they want the series to return to campus sites when it expires, which would begin in Fayetteville in 2025.
While it would definitely consider playing in kickoff events at venues like AT&T Stadium in the future, Arkansas likely wouldn’t enter in another 10-year agreement that locks it into one spot, Yurachek said.
However, those will be conversations for another day. The news that dominated the state Wednesday, even more so than games continuing in War Memorial Stadium, was that Arkansas and Arkansas State were finally going to meet on the gridiron.
“I think what’s been pretty cool is there’s been a great deal of attention across our state on college football in February,” Yurachek said. “I think that shows what this game is going to mean to people across this state, whether you’re a Razorback fan or whether you’re a Red Wolf fan. It’s going to be a pretty cool atmosphere in September of 2025.”
