Arkansas Blog

Very disappointing. I assume the UA has already faxed Wally his instructions for explaining how this is the right thing to do. I look forward to seeing/hearing(sports crap) Wally's helpful comments on this.

Severus,

2009 has A&M, Georgia, and Florida besides the West slate of Alabama, Auburn, LSU, a resurgent Miss St and an Eastern division South Carolina coming off a top 5 recruiting class. You need to add TExas to that? I don't think so.

It was very poor scheduling to begin with. All of the interested parties that built it are long gone. Time for a little common sense. If you are going to add big name schools you have to do it in the years with Vandy and Kentucky on the slate.

That's just chickensh!t.

Fletch,

What exactly does Arkansas gain by playing a cupcake? It doesn't help their reputation. It certainly doesn't inspire the players who were recruited with the promise of playing Texas. It's not like Arkansas will be undefeated this year, so it won't cost them a national championship. I would rather see the Razorbacks play and lose to Texas than to beat a cream puff from Arkansas State's conference. If it costs them the ability to play in the Nashville Music City Bowl or the Shreveport Toilet Bowl, so be it. Playing the top teams builds character, even if it is painful. Arkansas might even manage to beat Texas occasionally.

Too much is just too much Guys. The players have to have some break from a tough schedule physically and emotionally.

Sure, I would love to see a middle tier Division I team in that slot rather than a Division II. Put a TCU, a Baylor, Okie State, UCLA, Syracuse, North Carolina, in there, NOT perenial Top 5 Texas. Doesn't make sense, not in a year with Florida and Georgia from the east.

You have to give them a chance to succeed. They deserve that.

Aren't there 40 other weeks in the year off from the schedule?

"Screw all you old fans" is the message here. The SEC is awesome and all but there is no gut hatred to any of those games. They try to trump up the LSU-Arkansas game like it was a natural rivalry but it will never reach the level of a Texas or even a Texas A&M game for that deep level of satisfaction when Arkansas wins. Forgive me for suggesting rain on your tailgate parties. Somebody else beat Texas /"\

When will the Razorpussies Administration dare to put it all on the line against ASU?

Fletch is right.
You that object get your pads on and bust your ass every week and see if you are not crippled up.
Those kids are not being paid enough doing what you want of them every weekend. I think they should be paid like the pros because they bring in more money each game than the pros do.
Who is it that's filling their pockets up every week?

What do they have to gain, IABL?

If you're going to put it on the line, you better well do it with the promise that you'll get something back if you win.

An ASU victory does nothing for UA. Period.

I am shocked at the incredible lack of football understanding in this football state.

With Texas, this could have seriously been possibly the most difficult schedule in the history of college football. That is no hyperbole. Up to 10 teams could be ranked, with as many as half (or more) being in the top ten. There isn't a team in this country that would play that schedule.

Kudos to you, Bobby Petrino, for making sense. Quite refreshing after the circus we are used to dealing with.

RazorbackDem

True they have all to lose and little to gain playing ASU. They should play them anyway. State pride maybe.

Keep the money in-state? In a state ranked near the bottom in every economic category you can make the argument on that alone. OKlahoma has nothing to gain playing OSU given that every in-state recruit that can go to Oklahoma will go there over OSU.

Schedule the game. I say, Man Up and schedule the game.

It's not life or death. Though sure is treated that way. How bout this. If the Razorbacks don't schedule the game they cut a check to Arkansas state for the same amount of the cut that a IIA team gets for playing the Razorbacks here. That'd be fair.

Worse case scenario is Razorbacks lose. Man oh man that sure would cause some cardia arrest. But it's no reason not to play the game.

More probably the outcome is that in some years the Razorbacks don't win by the 40 points expected of them. Just because the level of fanaticism about Hogs is OFF THE CHARTS shouldn't keep the game from being played.

Schedule the game.

Razorback Dem, what does ark gain by playing teams from ASU's Conference? but they do it every year.

this is ultimately cheating the players. you people that say'"suit up and then say something" those players have busted thier butts the whole year. for what? to play mount st mary's girls schools? When I played competitve sports, I wanted to play the best, to show how I compared. I would hate to cheat these players out of the same opportunity so the admin can make sure to get thier $200,000 from the moldy bread mieneke muffler bowl,

It's funny here. I often hear boisterous proclamations of "We had an 8 win season" etc when 3 or 4 of the wins were against the equivalent of good high school teams. But if you dare try to remind anyone of that it doesn't go over well. That spoils the party. Win some real games! How might that be. If you are going to get all puffed up over this stuff.

If McFadden had the opportunity to show out in a game against Texas in place of one of the four breathers last year he may have had a shot at the Heisman.

Congratulations to McFadden for his big day in the NFL combine and for having two babies on the way, one due in July and the other in August.

ASU Wolves? They should add something cool like Curley in front of it.

Sports is the world's biggest religion. If you all had half as much concern for your souls as you do winning games you'd be worshipping God more and sports less!
Every one of you know football is about money. Playing ASU will not bring extra money to the state but it will keep what we have here here. see?
Playing ULM, or, some other small college, takes money out of the state because they get more to take home than they bring. So, that is one very good reason for an instate game. Other states do it alllllll the time....!
I am for helping our own schools before helping the out of state schools. One year ASU had one of the best teams in the country:probably could have beat the hogs that year. With a little help it can become a major school and bring in as much money to the state as the UofA games does!!!!

I guess I'd like to see which team replaces Texas before pronouncing the replacement a "cupcake." Recent history suggests a badly overmatched opponent will be substituted, but recent history may not be relevant anymore.

If a UA vs. ASU game is to be played, it seems like the impetus may have to come from the legislature. It hardly seems fair to expect UA athletic officials to do something *voluntarily* that is not in their program's best interest (even if it is in the interest of the state's football fans generally, or in the interests of a competitng institution).

Every year some out-of-state Razorback football recruit is quoted as saying he likes the University of Arkansas because of its state-wide support, since "they are the only major college team in the state." That's not true, of course, but the false impression sure seems to be benefitting the Hogs, even if just a little, in recruiting.

(Meanwhile, over in Mississippi, neither Ole Miss nor Mississippi State can claim to be the Main Attraction, and Southern Miss has been in ascendancy for a while. Likewise, the Sooners may be the big boys in Oklahoma, but nobody thinks they have all the state's major college fans behind them. Same with UK and, now, Lousville.)

It seems to me that ASU has to keep pressing to play UA, and UA has to keep resisting. Maybe that leaves the ball in the legislature's lap.