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The SEC announced the 2021 football schedules for all 14 teams - including Arkansas - on Wednesday.
Here are a few quick takeaways from the Razorbacks’ slate, which you can view here…
Returning to Normalcy
In a normal year, it would be silly to note that Arkansas has a 12-game schedule that includes four non-conference opponents. However, the last 10 months have been anything but normal.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the 2020 season was pushed back a few weeks and the SEC went with a 10-game, conference-only schedule.
With optimism high that things will be back to normal by the time the 2021 season rolls around, the conference announced typical schedules for all 14 teams.
Only 2 SEC Games in Fayetteville
Every team in the conference gets four home and four road SEC games. However, only two of Arkansas’ four home games will be played at Reynolds Razorback Stadium.
The Razorbacks are the designated home team against Texas A&M in 2021 and that series is moving back to AT&T Stadium after being played in College Station, Texas, last season because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Athletics director Hunter Yurachek originally expressed a desire to get a return game in Fayetteville before heading back to Arlington, Texas, but sources told HawgBeat that such a move would have required a two-year extension to the schools’ contract with AT&T Stadium, which currently goes through 2024.
Arkansas is also scheduled to host Missouri, but that game will be played at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock as part of a deal struck with the venue in 2018.
It will be the second time the Razorbacks have played just two of their SEC home games in Fayetteville, as a similar scenario played out in 2019. Unless there are changes to either of those contracts, it will happen again in 2023.
Black Friday?
Speaking of that Missouri game, it was announced for Nov. 27 - the Saturday following Thanksgiving.
That is how that game - and the LSU game before it - has always been announced initially, but it is usually moved up a day to Black Friday sometime in the summer when CBS officially picks it up.
However, because of the pandemic, CBS did not have a Black Friday time slot last season and therefore, the Arkansas-Missouri game was never moved off its Nov. 28 date. (It was ultimately postponed to Dec. 5 because of COVID-19 issues within the Razorbacks' program.)
It is unclear if the Arkansas-Missouri game will be back on the Friday after Thanksgiving this year or in the future. ESPN and ABC have announced they will take over the CBS package beginning in 2024.
Georgia, Again
Head coach Sam Pittman will get another crack at his former employer in Year 2 at Arkansas. This time, the Razorbacks will travel to Athens, Ga., to play Georgia on Oct. 2.
The Bulldogs are Arkansas’ regularly scheduled East Division opponent for 2021. The Razorbacks hosted Georgia to open the 2020 season, but it was one of the two games added to the schedule when the conference went to the aforementioned 10-game, SEC-only slate.
The SEC did not adjust its cross-division rotation, which is why Arkansas and Georgia will play in back-to-back seasons.
Double Back-to-Back SEC Road Games
The four SEC road games on Arkansas’ 2021 schedule will happen in a pair of back-to-back weekends. First, the Razorbacks will travel to Georgia and Ole Miss on Oct. 2 and 9, respectively, and then they’ll travel to LSU and Alabama on Nov. 13 and 20, respectively.
Arkansas hasn’t played two sets of consecutive SEC road games since 2015. That season, the Razorbacks beat Tennessee and lost to Alabama in October and then knocked off No. 19 Ole Miss and No. 9 LSU in November.
Open Date
Arkansas will play eight straight games before getting an open date on Oct. 30 and then will end the season with four straight SEC matchups.
That is late in the year, but not the latest the Razorbacks have experienced in recent years. In 2018, they played nine straight games before their open date.
The team Arkansas plays following the open date is Mississippi State, which has the second-earliest open week in the SEC. It falls on Oct. 9, with the Bulldogs playing Alabama (Oct. 16), at Vanderbilt (Oct. 23) and Kentucky (Oct. 30) before traveling to Fayetteville.
No teams have an open date before playing the Razorbacks.
Strong SWC Flavor
Fans old enough to remember Arkansas’ time in the Southwest Conference will get a sense of deja vu when looking at the first part of the schedule.
The Razorbacks open the season against Rice on Sept. 4 and then welcome former rival Texas to Fayetteville the following week, on the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
After a matchup with Georgia Southern out of the Sun Belt, Arkansas will play Texas A&M in the annual Southwest Classic at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Three of those four teams - Rice, Texas and Texas A&M - were founding members of the SWC with Arkansas way back in 1915. They remained conference foes until the Razorbacks joined the SEC for the 1992 season.
It will be the 13th straight year Arkansas has played the Aggies, as they renewed their rivalry in 2009 and played three times as SEC-Big 12 foes before Texas A&M joined the SEC in 2012. Despite losing the last nine matchups, the Razorbacks lead the all-time series 41-33-3.
Arkansas has played Texas five times since leaving the SWC and won three of those games. Most recently, the Razorbacks beat the Longhorns 31-7 in the 2014 Texas Bowl. However, the Longhorns lead the all-time series 56-22.
The season opener will be the first time Arkansas has played Rice - which is now in Conference USA - as a non-conference opponent, with a 20-0 win over the Owls in 1991 marking its last game in the SWC. The Razorbacks are 35-29-3 all-time against Rice thanks to dominating the last four decades of the series, going 30-7-1 since 1954.
In-State Matchup
For the first time since World War II, Arkansas will play an in-state school during the 2021 football season. The Razorbacks welcome FCS foe Arkansas-Pine Bluff to Fayetteville on Oct. 23.
The game was added to Arkansas’ schedule shortly after Yurachek loosened the school’s decades-long policy against playing schools within the Natural State.
Yurachek originally allowed his programs to schedule schools within the UA system - which includes UAPB and Little Rock (no football program) at the Division I level - but has since opened the door to playing Arkansas State and UCA in all sports except football.
The matchup with UAPB will be Arkansas’ first against an in-state school since beating Arkansas A&M, which is now known as UA-Monticello and is a Division II school, 41-0 to end the 1944 season.
The Razorbacks are also scheduled to host UAPB in 2024.
It should be a relatively easy game for Arkansas, which has won 17 straight games against FCS opponents since losing to The Citadel in 1992. Five of the last six of those have been decided by at least 35 points, with the lone exception being a 20-13 win over Portland State in 2019.
