A quarter-century later, SEC move on the money

FAYETTEVILLE -- Looking back over 25 years of Arkansas football in the SEC leads to one inescapable conclusion.

Frank Broyles' uncanny view into the future for the Razorbacks as the school's athletic director during the end of their run in the Southwest Conference proved to be prescient and profitable.

Broyles knew Arkansas' athletic fortunes would be better off hitched to a regional grouping of mostly state schools with powerful histories -- especially in football -- and a more equitable form of revenue sharing. The move alleviated the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville from a Texas-centric array of schools in the SWC, lorded over by the Texas Longhorns, with revenue skewed in favor of the most powerful.

"If there was an architect behind this, it had to be Frank Broyles," said Dan Ferritor, the UA chancellor when Arkansas left the SWC to join the SEC. "He did a lot of things right in his life, and his vision of the importance of our future and how the Southeastern Conference was going to help that was just incredible insight. He didn't have a hard time convincing me, and when I talked to members of the board, I didn't have a hard time convincing them."

Broyles, speaking in 2010, said the Razorbacks would have been left behind during the conference realignment craze if they hadn't been proactive and moved to the SEC during the 1991-1992 school term.

"We'd be an independent," Broyles told Wholehogsports.com seven years ago. "We would not have been included in the Big 12, I'm told by people in the south. We'd be an independent and broke."

Instead, the Razorbacks are a financial juggernaut with an athletics budget pushing past $115 million per year to go along with strong finishes each year in the all-sports Director's Cup.

Winning in football has not come as easy for Arkansas in the SEC as it did during its long tenure in the SWC.

The Razorbacks have an overall record of 167-137-2 (.549) in the past 25 years, while their conference mark is 90-108-2 (.455). Arkansas has two outright SEC West titles, two shared titles, six finishes in the top two of the SEC West and no conference championships in the SEC.

In their final 25 years in the SWC, the Razorbacks compiled a 123-60-6 (.667) record in league games, featuring two outright titles, three shared championships and 14 finishes in the top two.

"When we weren't in the SEC, our bowl record against SEC teams was 3-10-1," former Arkansas sports information director Rick Schaeffer said. "That's who we're playing every week now, so it changed a lot."

A wild SEC ride

While the Razorbacks still are seeking their first SEC championship, they have played in three SEC title games, losing to Florida in 1995 and 2006 and to Georgia in 2002. The Hogs have been ranked as high as No. 3 in the country, and they've played in one Bowl Championship Series game, the Sugar Bowl after the 2010 season.

The Razorbacks have been involved in some of the most dramatic games in college football over the past quarter century. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette's sports staff ranked 25 games from among 80 nominees to come up with a top 25 most memorable games since the Razorbacks joined the SEC in 1992. The voting was spread wildly, with 57 games receiving at least one vote and five games getting at least one first-place vote among our 15-member voting panel.

The Razorbacks have the distinction of being the only FBS college football team to have played in two seven-overtime games, and the Hogs won them both -- on the road no less, at Ole Miss and at Kentucky behind quarterback Matt Jones in 2001 and 2003.

Speaking of overtime games, Arkansas has an 8-1 record in games lasting at least two overtimes, enhanced by a 41-38 victory in double overtime last year at former SWC rival TCU. Though that game did not crack our top 25 -- it came in at No. 45 -- it featured a handful of signature moments, such as Keon Hatcher's two-point conversion pass to quarterback Austin Allen after a late touchdown drive, Dan Skipper's critical blocked field goal in the final seconds of regulation, and Allen's game-winning touchdown run.

Arkansas football seized a chunk of college football history by defeating the No. 1 team on the road in three overtimes in its 50-48 victory over LSU in 2007, a game that was Coach Houston Nutt's last on the Hill. That game did not eliminate the Tigers from the national title scene, as they went on to defeat Ohio State in the BCS Championship Game.

Most Razorback fans have seen the clip of Nutt raving about tailback Darren McFadden after that game and telling the cameras, "Lou Holtz, Mark May, you've gotta put him in the Heisman!"

Nor could they forget McFadden bouncing around in that very clip, declaring, "We've got that wood right here!" while carrying the miniature bat that symbolized how hard the Razorbacks played that day.

Nutt's finale is guaranteed to show up on the Democrat-Gazette's list of the top 25 Razorback games of the SEC era, which will be presented over the coming weeks of summer.

Arkansas football over the past 25 years has had its share of memorable games that wound up with their own names, such as the "Miracle on Markham" -- the original in 2002 and its sequel in 2008 -- and the "Henry Heave," another classic overtime victory at Ole Miss that made the countdown.

There are also other classics that did not end so well for the Hogs, such as the "Stoerner Stumble" game, when Arkansas seemed on the brink of upsetting No. 1 Tennessee at Neyland Stadium and perhaps playing its way into the first BCS title game after the 1998 season.

Not everyone will agree with our rankings, but each of the games in our final list is remarkable in its own way. We hope to present riveting retellings of the top 25 games, complete with perspectives of players and coaches, game statistics and the reason why the game mattered as we march through the countdown.

We also will ask for input from our readers to rank their top 25 games from our list. We will reveal your selections near the end of the project.

Rare move

When Broyles and the Razorbacks, after years of contemplation and discontent with the inequities of the SWC, decided to make their big conference move -- joined by South Carolina as the SEC expanded from 10 to 12 schools -- changing conferences was extremely rare.

"The only change that had occurred by that time was that Penn State had joined the Big Ten," said Roy Kramer, the SEC commissioner for the expansion, which was announced in August of 1990. The Hogs and Gamecocks played their debut seasons in the SEC in 1992.

"I think they were a perfect add at that point in time," Kramer said of the Razorbacks. "They fit all of our criteria. They were very competitive. They were nationally recognized across the board, and they brought a great deal to our conference in all sports. I thought it made our conference significantly better."

Kramer was famously photographed wearing a Hog hat at the news conference to announce Arkansas' addition to the league.

"Ha-ha! Well, coach Broyles snuck up behind me and put it on my head just as I made the announcement," Kramer said when reminded of that moment. "I still have that picture, and my grandchildren remind me every now and then."

Schaeffer, the former UA sports information director, said Broyles had explored forming another conference with Texas and other heavyweights such as Oklahoma, Nebraska and LSU before joining the SEC.

"He knew that the Southwest Conference wasn't going to survive," Schaeffer said. "Because you had the bottom end of the conference, plus you didn't have an equitable split of finances.

"If you were at the top you got more money. That kept the bottom from ever being much better. You had Arkansas, Texas, Texas A&M and Houston was pretty good in football for a while. But the others had to cheat to be any good."

Schaeffer called Broyles a visionary who was way ahead of his time.

"He saw the finances. He understood what Arkansas needed," Schaeffer said. "It was frustrating for him ... that people didn't see the future like he saw it. The reason he started exploring another league in the late '70s was because Lou Holtz and Eddie Sutton both complained about the fact that no official who lived in Arkansas could do our games. But if we'd go play Texas, all the officials were from the state of Texas. So they were very frustrated by that."

The move to the SEC has been undeniably beneficial financially. The Razorbacks have an athletics budget of more than $115 million for the 2017-18 fiscal year, bolstered by the SEC's lucrative agreements with TV rights holders ESPN and CBS, the league's success across the board in athletics and generous donors.

"The amount of money that came in, in addition to what we were getting from the Southwest Conference, was a real bonus," Ferritor said. "Believe me, it was wonderful and it's just gotten better over the years.

"But from my point of view, I thought we had a better match in the Southeastern Conference and I thought it was better for us in recruiting to be able to tell a student that you can go to Tennessee and play in front of 100,000 people and be on television."

Current Arkansas Athletic Director Jeff Long, early in his tenure when rumors were connecting the Razorbacks to the Big 12 shakeup, summarized the reasons why leaving the SEC made little sense.

"It's the strongest conference in the country," Long said. "It is the envy of, I would say, virtually every conference in the country. We're the strongest financially, we're strongest in our competition on the fields of play, and we have the best coaches. There are many reasons to look at the SEC and say this is where you want to be."

Marvin Caston -- now a senior director at the Razorback Foundation, the university's fundraising arm for athletics -- was a standout prep player in Winnsboro, La., who believed in the recruiting pitch of coach Danny Ford and decided to join the Arkansas football program during its infancy in the SEC.

"Coach Ford, he came back and spoke a few years ago at the [Northwest Arkansas] Touchdown Club, and one of the things he told ... a group of players that he recruited who came to hear him was the first thing that stood out to him was the facilities were way behind, and the talent you're competing with -- the Alabamas and all those teams -- we didn't have it," Caston said.

"To see what Coach Broyles has put together as far as building facilities, with part of that coming from the revenue we get from the SEC and then the private support -- which we do every day with the fans and the passion and support they give the program -- it's vital. It's beyond vital, particularly when you consider Arkansas is one of the 25 or less schools who have self-sufficient athletic departments, with no state funding, no student fees."

Ford, an Alabama graduate who led the Razorbacks to their first SEC West title in 1995 with current Arkansas assistant coach Barry Lunney at quarterback, recalls the early days in the SEC with clarity.

"Arkansas and South Carolina both, when they came into the SEC, they were ill-prepared with what they had, building-wise, player-wise," Ford said. "They just didn't know what all they were getting in to. Their facilities were so far behind, and they had to recruit and find more players that were ready for the SEC."

Three West crowns

Ford's arrival was essentially due to a crisis. Arkansas lost its first game as an SEC team against The Citadel by the score of 10-3. Broyles fired Jack Crowe the day after the game and defensive coordinator Joe Kines, who was named the interim coach, persuaded Ford to come on board as a consultant.

The Razorbacks played their first conference game the next week, crushing South Carolina 45-7 in Columbia, S.C., to depict the vast gap between themselves and the other new SEC arrival.

"After we won that game, we were like, 'It's going to be OK,' " former Arkansas receiver J.J. Meadors said. "Then we played Alabama. The first few plays it was like sack, sack, sack, punt, touchdown Alabama."

Meadors and the Hogs lost 38-11 to the No. 9 Crimson Tide in the first SEC game played in Little Rock.

"I think our first rude awakening was when Alabama got off the bus in Little Rock and took it to us," Meadors said. "That was our real introduction to the SEC. It really wasn't anything about the X's and O's. It was really about the Jimmys and Joes. They just had better personnel than we did."

Yet it wouldn't be long before Ford had the Razorbacks in the hunt.

The 1995 team smashed South Carolina 51-21 in Little Rock, then went to Bryant-Denny Stadium and upset No. 13 Alabama 20-19 on Meadors' 3-yard touchdown catch from Lunney with six seconds remaining en route to the SEC West crown. That game will be detailed in our series.

The Razorbacks ended Alabama's three-year run of SEC West titles and became the first team other than the Crimson Tide and Florida to play in the 4-year-old SEC Championship Game.

"When we stepped on the field in 1992 and played Alabama in Little Rock, as a coach kid's that understood football, I knew looking down on the other end of the field that we were in trouble," Lunney said. "I think anybody could realize that.

"Then fast forward to 1995 and we got there. We looked different. We were a different team and that carried on in '96 and '97 and '98."

Lunney said the recruiting by Ford and his staff put Arkansas in position to compete in the rugged SEC West.

"That cycle he recruited those last few years, I just don't think he's ever gotten enough credit for that," Lunney said.

Yet it would be another seven years before the Razorbacks would return to the SEC Championship Game at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

The Razorbacks' 2002 conference season began with a dud -- a 30-12 loss at Reynolds Razorback Stadium to Alabama -- but because the Crimson Tide were on NCAA probation, the Hogs had a path to the SEC West crown.

Despite a 41-38 loss in six overtimes to Tennessee at Neyland Stadium -- the Razorbacks' first overtime loss and a game that came in at No. 26 on our countdown -- Arkansas kept battling. The Hogs won 38-17 at No. 24 Auburn, then after a home loss to Kentucky they reeled off six consecutive victories.

The West-clinching moment came in Little Rock in the finale, an astonishing comeback against Nick Saban's LSU Tigers punctuated by Jones' 31-yard touchdown pass to DeCori Birmingham with 9 seconds left for a 21-20 victory. The Democrat-Gazette described it as "Jones to Birmingham to Atlanta", and the game quickly got a name: "The Miracle on Markham."

Thrilling victories over LSU on the day after Thanksgiving are some of the highlights of the top 25 games. Six years after the first Markham miracle, the Razorbacks duplicated it when Casey Dick connected with London Crawford for a 24-yard touchdown pass on fourth down with 22 seconds remaining for a 31-30 victory. Crawford landed very near the spot in the same end zone where Birmingham made his momentous catch to cap Bobby Petrino's first season.

Nutt guided the Razorbacks to another SEC West title in 2006, one of the most chaotic but memorable seasons in Arkansas football history.

Those Razorbacks, with Fort Smith native Gus Malzahn serving as offensive coordinator, lost 50-14 to No. 6 Southern California to open the season. But with sophomore running backs McFadden and Felix Jones picking up steam, the Razorbacks won 10 games in a row to claim the West title and peak with a No. 5 ranking.

That Arkansas team did not finish well, falling 31-26 to LSU in another memorable game at War Memorial Stadium, losing the SEC Championship Game 38-28 to No. 4 Florida, then losing the Citrus Bowl 17-14 to a No. 6 Wisconsin team led by future Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema.

The past decade

The Razorbacks have had four head coaches in the past 10 years -- Nutt, Petrino, interim coach John L. Smith, whose team produced one game that made it into our top 25 countdown for all the wrong reasons, and Bielema -- roughly paralleling the tenure of Long, who succeeded Broyles on Jan. 1, 2008.

While all of their West titles and several of the Hogs best teams of the past quarter century came prior to 2007, their only BCS team and their first 11-victory team since 1977 came in back-to-back seasons under Petrino, who with a 34-17 record won 66.7 percent of his games.

Petrino's four seasons produced many notable feats, such as the BCS bid in 2010.

Bielema's four-year tenure has been dotted with drama, through heartbreak -- like in dagger losses to Alabama and at No. 1 Mississippi State in 2014 -- and triumph -- like in a field-storming 17-0 shutout of LSU in 2014, the "Henry Heave" game, and a four-overtime 54-46 victory over Malzahn and Auburn in 2015, which ranked No. 28 in our poll.

Fans can argue over the results of our poll, and they can argue over the wisdom of Arkansas' decision to jump leagues 27 summers ago.

What's inarguable is that Razorback fans have been treated to dozens of breathtaking football games over the past 25 years.

"It was a good decision because it challenged us to be better in athletics," Ferritor said. "It challenged us to upgrade our facilities. It challenged us -- I don't know if you ever have to challenge a coach to recruit better -- but it challenged us, it gave us a broader base of recognition where we played and were able to recruit. It gave fans better games.

"Certainly if you look at what these 25 years have done in terms of our program, I think nobody could argue very strongly that it wasn't a good decision."

Sports on 06/04/2017