What’s Really Best for Arkansas Football?

Nearly 80,000 tailgated under the unusually cool, mild mid-September Arkansas sky, awaiting the day’s game matching the home state Hogs against the MAC’s Toledo Rockets. Only 49,591 of those revelers would make it in the gates of War Memorial Stadium to be surprisingly forced to sit until the last play of the game to watch the plucky Rockets down #18 Arkansas 16-12.

The Rockets collected their 1 million dollar check, a road win over a ranked SEC team, and their brief moment in the sun before they turn their attention back to what really matters, their MAC schedule.

For the Razorbacks, it is a brief embarrassing moment that Bret Bielema will have to explain away with coach speak and do a mea culpa with the fan base before turning their attention to what really matters, their SEC schedule.

Two hours and a 76 million dollar difference in athletic department budgets away, Arkansas State hosted #21 ranked and SEC member Missouri before 29,143 in announced attendance, short of the anticipated sellout, eventually falling 27-20 on a beautiful evening made for football. Missouri shrugs off the game and walks away having dodged a bullet and turning their focus to the SEC schedule.

Arkansas State will try to get healthy and ponder a lost chance for a “signature win” and prepare for a march through the Sunbelt Conference.

This was the first time that two top 25 teams played in two games on the same day in state sports history. That seems like an astounding moment, but what did these two teams really achieve, either positive of negative going forward from this monumental day?

With four thousand empty seats at War Memorial Stadium, fans chose to enjoy the weather, tailgating and their disinterest in the matchup of a ranked Arkansas football team against a distant MAC opponent. Toledo cashes their million dollar check, which is about 5% of their athletic budget, and flies home getting some sizzle for the week but facing the reality that they must be successful against their MAC foes to truly have a season of relevance.

For Arkansas State, it was an opportunity to show progress in the program, not only on the field but with the new facilities. The expanded tower, full of revenue producing seats casting a long shadow over the stands and the field, along with the indoor practice facility that almost appears too large to fit against the cozy confines of the forty year old stadium, are reminders of where the program has come in only five years. The fan base is beyond moral victories and the pride of staying close against Mizzou will be on short display.

The weekend for Arkansas was a reminder of what happened almost 3 years to the day in the same stadium, a 34-31 loss to Sunbelt member Louisiana-Monroe that sent Arkansas spiraling out of the top 10 and onto a 4-8 season that ended the John L. Smith era and ushered in the Bielema regime.

But what we should have learned from that disastrous September night in 2012, is that the Arkansas program, braced by loyal fans and SEC money, was not so fragile as to evaporate after the Monroe debacle. Within two,years Arkansas would,be back to six wins, a bowl victory over rival Texas, and a preseason ranking in 2015.

As we look at the lack of a sellout at both stadiums, the reality that all non-conference games against smaller programs for Arkansas football are “nothing to gain” games, and the money that is swapped between these programs to fill a slot on a schedule can be staggering, we should wonder why these two Arkansas football teams don’t play.