COMMENTARY

Game Location A Win For Hogs

Arkansas athletics director Jeff Long talks with fans prior to a game against Texas A&M on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2015, in Arlington, Texas.

It is clear from listening to the Arkansas and Texas A&M football coaches and athletic directors talk this week that playing in Arlington, Texas, is far more exciting to the Razorbacks and their fans than for the Aggies.

That’s just fine with Arkansas, scheduled to play Texas A&M at the Dallas Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium through 2024.

“I hesitate to comment on how another institution feels,” Arkansas Vice Chancellor and Athletic Director Jeff Long said. “That is up for them to decide.

“But we like playing the games there. We like competing against Texas A&M. They are a great university and athletic program and football program so it is a great opportunity compete in the world’s finest stadium.

“It is a big win for us.”

The neutral site game was already in the works before Long became Arkansas’ athletic director.

“It was underway with Coach Broyles ... and I picked the ball up when I got here and was able to complete that,” Long said. “ … It is a win for Arkansas as it gets us into that fan base — really our largest one outside of the state of Arkansas.

“As guys know, the recruiting down there is very important and not just recruiting of athletes, but the recruiting of students. We are getting a large number of students out of the Dallas area so for Arkansas, it has been a big win for us to play the games there.”

Arkansas coach Bret Bielema believes playing the game in Arlington helps his team recruit in Texas.

Aggies coach Kevin Sumlin, who has expressed a preference to play Arkansas as a home-and-home instead of at a neutral site, doesn’t think the game does much for his team in terms of recruiting.

“I don’t know that winning or losing one game affects recruiting much,” Sumlin said. “I don’t think it works that way. It may affect one guy, but the season as a whole affects recruiting to a larger degree.

“In general, a neutral site game doesn’t bring anything extra or show your atmosphere as it is on campus. It has something to do with it, but the other 11 games have more of an impact.”

The series was agreed to by an athletic director before Sumlin arrived although there were homeand-home games in 2011 and 2012 as Texas A&M left the Big 12 Conference and joined the SEC.

Current Texas A&M athletic director Scott Woodward has let Sumlin know that he won’t be doing any more of these deals regardless of the money it brings in.

“I’m on my third athletic director since I have been here,” Sumlin said. “So that changes, too. Fortunately Scott Woodword is on the same page and we have talked about scheduling, but a lot of places that is not the case.

“To say the coach has an obligation to do that (honor the contracts), I don’t know that is the case. I think administratively that is a different question.”