Tell me again why Missouri is in the SEC East and not in the SEC West.
Tell me why West Virginia, and not Houston, is a member of the Big 12 Conference?
While you’re at it, please explain why in the world Notre Dame — in the heart of Big 10 country — aligns itself in the Atlantic Coast Conference with schools from Florida to Massachusetts?
Geographically, none of these examples make sense, which is a huge problem for colleges and universities across the country facing significant shortfalls directly related to the spread of covid-19. A growing list of schools administrators have responded by eliminating some team sports from its budget.
By last count, over 100 sports programs have been eliminated. Teams in Power 5 Conferences have avoided cuts so far, but school administrators have a clear message for their athletic directors and coaches: Get lean or we’ll get mean.
So, I was not surprised when Arkansas Athletic Director Hunter Yurachek announced Razorbacks coaches can begin scheduling in-state games against Arkansas State and Central Arkansas. All sports, that is, except football.
“We’ve asked our coaches just to try to do their best to schedule competitions where a commercial flight is not necessary,” Yurachek said. “So this just provides two more [scheduling] opportunities for our coaches.”
So, the coronavirus did what those of us who’ve been pleading for decades for in-state games couldn’t do? Amazing.
For now, football games with Arkansas State or Central Arkansas are not in the discussion but I am confident that’ll eventually happen as well. And why wouldn’t it, especially considering Arkansas has faced nearly every team in the Sun Belt Conference except ASU?
Yurachek’s announcement blows up Arkansas’ long-standing policy of not playing in-state schools. The first crack came a year ago when the Razorbacks played the University of Little Rock and University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff — sister institutions in the UA system — in some sports in 2019.
“We competed against [UALR and UAPB] and the world didn’t come to an end,” said Yurachek, who deserves much credit for his leadership after being hired at Arkansas in 2017.
Yurachek’s directive about reducing travel by plane closely resembles a statement two weeks ago from Louisiana-Lafayette Athletic Director Bryan Maggard about a potential merger between the Sun Belt and Conference-USA.
“It doesn’t make good economic sense to put teams on airplanes and fly over schools that you can drive to to compete against,” Maggard told the Acadian Advocate in Lafayette, La. “We’re at the point where if this pandemic hasn’t opened our eyes to the necessity of that, I’m not sure anything will.”
Makes a lot of sense, right? There’s no reason Arkansas State shouldn’t be in the same league, or at least have a working agreement for sports, with schools like Alabama-Birmingham, Louisiana Tech, and Southern Mississippi. But egos and pettiness have long trumped what is reasonable or practical.
“I think if I were in Lafayette’s position, I’d be trying to figure out a way to move up to a level, like Conference USA, Louisiana Tech Athletic Director Tommy McClelland said in response to a possible merger between the Sun Belt and Conference-USA.
Keep in mind Louisiana Tech spent over a decade as a member of the Western Athletic Conference, with long trips that included plane rides to Hawaii, just to avoid being lumped together with schools in its own region. Thankfully, this is the kind of attitude and wasteful spending that is no longer acceptable in college sports.
If defending national champion LSU can add Grambling and Southern University to future football schedules, as the Tigers did last week, then Arkansas and Arkansas State can certainly do the same and agree on games.
Full disclosure: I am an Arkansas State graduate and I remember those “How Long Will They Run?” shirts that teased Razorbacks fans about avoiding games. I never wore one, never bought one, and I’ve long chastised a small element of ASU fans who’d rather see Arkansas lose than their own teams win.
But, my goodness, the excuses Arkansas has used for decades against playing in-state games are no longer acceptable and I still find it hilarious the time Razorbacks fans complained ASU fans celebrated too much when the Red Wolves beat them in women’s basketball in 2005.
So, let’s cut out the nonsense and play games that will generate fan interest and benefit the top college sports programs in our state.
Money says so.
Covid-19 says so.
Common sense says so.
It is long, long past time.