What we know about Arkansas' 10-game SEC-only schedule for 2020
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FAYETTEVILLE — Just two weeks after admitting his confidence level had dipped to 50/50, Hunter Yurachek is now 90 percent sure football will be played this fall.
The reason behind the Arkansas athletics director’s newfound optimism is the SEC’s announcement Thursday to play a 10-game, conference-only schedule beginning Sept. 26 and ending with the conference title game Dec. 19.
The Razorbacks will still play the eight SEC opponents on their schedule while dropping games against Nevada, Notre Dame, Charleston Southern and ULM, but the rest of the schedule remains a mystery at this point.
A schedule should be finalized in the next 7-10 days, Yurachek told local media on a Zoom videoconference shortly after the announcement. Dates for previously scheduled games will likely change.
In addition to playing Alabama, LSU, Tennessee and Ole Miss at home and Mississippi State, Texas A&M, Auburn and Missouri on the road, Arkansas will have two games - one each at home and away - against the remaining SEC East schools: Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina and Vanderbilt.
Despite speculation that schools would play the next two games in the rotation - which for Arkansas would be at Georgia and against South Carolina - Yurachek said that isn’t the case. Instead, Mark Womack, the SEC’s Executive Associate Commissioner and CFO, will be creating the schedule.
“What he’s assured us is he will give us the best scheduling option for the Southeastern Conference,” Yurachek said. “As you know, we’re trying to get 14 athletic directors and 14 coaches to agree on what those additional two games are going to be (and) it’s never going to happen. I trust that Mark Womack will do a great job in putting our schedule together.”
In a light-hearted moment during the interview, Yurachek joked that he has reminded Womack of the last time the Razorbacks won an SEC game.
It has been nearly three years since Arkansas completed the largest comeback in school history to beat Ole Miss in Oxford, Miss. Since then, it has lost 19 consecutive conference games, which ranks sixth in SEC history.
When asked if he had a preference for which opponents from the Eastern division would be added to the schedule, Yurachek was coy.
“You can't put me on the spot like that; I'm going to make an SEC coach or athletic director mad,” Yurachek said with a smile. “We'll play any of them. You pick the ones you think we should play. We're probably the same.”
Although the schedule is now much more daunting for first-time head coach Sam Pittman, he and the players were excited about the news when Yurachek broke it to them Thursday afternoon.
“They are excited now that we have a plan and excited about the opportunity to play 10 games against 10 Southeastern Conference opponents,” Yurachek said. “They are just excited to play football.”