Little Rock loses Arkansas-LSU

Hogs’ 2012 SEC finale moved to Fayetteville

Arkansas Coach Bobby Petrino will face LSU in Fayetteville on Thanksgiving weekend instead of Little Rock this season. The Oct. 27 game against Mississippi has been moved to Little Rock to make up for the switch.

— Arkansas’ football team will play LSU in Fayetteville in 2012 for the first time since 1992, a move that had been widely anticipated since the Razorbacks released a tentative 2012 schedule six week ago that did not list specific venues for home games.

Mississippi replaces LSU as Arkansas’ SEC opponent at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock, corresponding with the announced move of Arkansas’ annual Thanksgiving weekend game, which has produced memorable finishes in recent years.

Arkansas is 8-12 against LSU since joining the SEC, going 1-0 in Fayetteville, 5-4 in Little Rock and 2-8 in Baton Rouge. Arkansas is 5-2 in Little Rock against LSU since 1998.

The Mississippi game is scheduled for Oct. 27. The Razorbacks’ other Little Rock game will be Louisiana-Monroe on Sept. 15.

Fayetteville also will be the site of a Sept. 22 matchup with Rutgers. The game with the Scarlet Knights fills the final hole on Arkansas’ schedule. Arkansas will play at Rutgers in 2013.

Arkansas Athletic Director Jeff Long said playing the LSU game in Little Rock this fall came with a three-pronged benefit: an additional 20,000 seats for what is expected to be a big SEC West showdown; the ability to have recruits in attendance at a nationally relevant game; and to prevent the Razorbacks from having to “travel” on each of the last three weekends of the season.

Recruits can attend one of Arkansas’ off-campus home games, but the Razorbacks have chosen the September game in Little Rock in recent years.

Long stressed the decision to move this year’s LSU game to Fayetteville did not mean it was a permanent change.

“Our fans shouldn’t assume this means all the LSU games are going to be in Fayetteville,” Long said. “Each year we will look at the schedule and determine which two games will be played in Little Rock.”

The Razorbacks face South Carolina and Mississippi State on the road Nov. 10 and Nov. 17 in the two weeks leading to the season finale.

“When you really look at our schedule and what would be in the best interests of our team and give us the best chance to win, we thought this was the best decision,” Long said.

Arkansas Coach Bobby Petrino, who has led the Razorbacks to a 21-5 record the past two seasons, is on board with the schedule changes despite his 2-0 record against LSU in Little Rock. He is 8-0 in Little Rock during his first four seasons.

“I’ve always enjoyed the atmosphere our fans have created and their willingness to support what is necessary to give our team the best opportunity to succeed,” he said in a university news release. “Due to our November schedule this year, it is to our advantage to play LSU on campus.

“In Fayetteville, Little Rock or away from home the passion and pride of our fans always lifts our team.”

Long said Arkansas has played nine of the 11 current SEC members in Little Rock — all except Florida and Georgia — since joining the conference in 1992, and that the Ole Miss series at War Memorial Stadium has produced some of the most important games in school history.

Arkansas last played Ole Miss in Little Rock in 1992, when the Razorbacks were playing three games at War Memorial Stadium.

In the university release, War Memorial Commission Chairman Kevin Crass said War Memorial Stadium “is excited to host the 2012 matchup, which will mark only the second time the Rebels have visited Little Rock since Arkansas joined the SEC.”

In an interview with The Associated Press, Crass said: “It is what it is. They have the right to pick the game and they explained the reason to me.”

The addition of Texas A&M and Missouri to the SEC in 2012, followed by a string of changes in the Big East and Big 12, complicated Arkansas’ scheduling. The Razorbacks’ Sept. 29 game against Texas A&M, orginally a nonconference game, is now a conference game, forcing Long to secure another nonconference opponent.

The contract with A&M calls for the game to take place at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, for the fourth consecutive year, as part of a 10-year deal, but the Aggies have listed it as an on-campus game on their 2012 schedule and it seems likely the series is headed for at least a one-year hiatus from Cowboys Stadium.

The Razorbacks added Rutgers after consulting with dozens of schools, with the intention of adding a BCS conference opponent.

“We talked to many, many programs and there were five or six involved in the end,” Long said. “We felt strongly we wanted a BCS-caliber game.

Both Petrino and Long have had dealings with Rutgers in recent years, Long during his stint as Athletic Director at Pittsburgh, and Petrino when his final two teams at Louisville in 2005-2006 played in the Big East against the Scarlet Knights.

“Their program has risen in the last five to seven years,” Long said. “It’s also a chance to play in the New York City area to showcase our program, and we have a strong alumni base in New York City, so Rutgers made a lot of sense.”

Rutgers will have a new coach, Kyle Flood, who replaced Greg Schiano, who left Rutgers the week before national signing date to become head coach of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Bucaneers.

Schiano was 68-67 in 11 seasons at Rutgers, but the Scarlet Knights were 56-33 in Schiano’s final seven seasons.

Arkansas will face Rutgers in Fayetteville on Sept. 22 and play a return game in Piscataway, N.J., on Sept. 21, 2013. It will mark Arkansas’ first games against Rutgers.

Rutgers is 5-11-2 all-time against SEC competition, its last matchup coming in 2004 when it defeated Vanderbilt, 37-34. Rutgers is 2-4 all-time at home against the SEC. All six of those games were played at Giants Stadium.

Sports, Pages 23 on 02/18/2012