FAYETTEVILLE — The Southwest Classic football game between Arkansas and Texas A&M is scheduled to be played at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, again in 2021, the schools’ athletics directors said Tuesday.
"We will actively (assess) future circumstances that may alter these plans," Arkansas athletics director Hunter Yurachek said in a tweet.
The teams are scheduled to play Saturday night at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas. This year’s game was moved away from AT&T Stadium because of covid-19 protocols, and the playing date was pushed back five weeks from the original date scheduled for the game.
Earlier this year, Yurachek said it "would be the fair and equitable thing to do" to move the teams' meeting on Sept. 25, 2021, to Fayetteville, then move the series back to Arlington through 2024, when the neutral-site contract for the series expires.
“I wouldn’t want to see Texas A&M get a home game this year and for us not to get that return game next year,” Yurachek said in July.
But Yurachek noted at the time "we'll see what that looks like moving forward” and the potential influence of the Jones family on the decision. Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones and his son, Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones, are former Razorback lettermen. Stephen Jones’ son, John Stephen, is a quarterback on Arkansas’ football team.
During a Facebook Live event called “Aggie Town Hall” on Tuesday, Texas A&M athletics director Ross Bjork said the schools ultimately agreed to move the game out of the stadium for one season only.
“Really, Arkansas, I guess, gave up a home game, if you will, in Fayetteville by returning that game to AT&T Stadium for the ’21 season,” Bjork said in the video. “We’ll play ‘22, ‘23 and ‘24 is the last year of the current agreement.
“Arkansas still has some work to do, and our plan is to move that game back to campus after the ‘24 contract is expired. We think this game deserves to be on campus. It’s an SEC game. We need to play as many of those games on our campus as possible. Obviously, we’ll see the benefit of that on Saturday night with our home crowd.”
In June, Yurachek made similar comments about the desire to move the game to the teams’ campuses. By playing at a neutral site, Arkansas and Texas A&M give up a game at their home stadium every other year.
That leaves Texas A&M with three on-campus conference games in even-numbered years. Arkansas plays two on-campus conference games during odd-numbered years because it is also under contract to play Missouri every other year at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.
The Razorbacks’ contract with War Memorial Stadium is set to expire in 2024, the same year as the contract at AT&T Stadium. Yurachek has said that will allow Arkansas to assess the best way to move forward with both venues.
“Every other year we have a challenge in our schedule,” Yurachek said in June. “This past season we only had two true SEC home games in Fayetteville, and that will happen to us again (in 2021).
“It’s important as we spend significant dollars to renovate and expand our stadiums and the premium areas we have in our stadiums, to have as many premium home games — and Texas A&M is a premium home game — so I think there would be a desire to potentially move that game back to campus.”
Arkansas and Texas A&M have played in Arlington most years since 2009 when the series began as a nonconference game while the Aggies were a member of the Big 12. Their first game in the series was the second college game ever played at the stadium.
The series was moved to the teams’ campuses for two seasons after Texas A&M joined the SEC in 2012, and has been played in Arlington each year since the teams agreed to an 11-game neutral-site contract that began in 2014.
Bjork and former Texas A&M athletics director Eric Hyman have have been critical of the game with Arkansas that was initially agreed to in 2008 when Bill Byrne led the Aggies’ athletics department and Jeff Long was the athletics director at Arkansas.
Scott Woodward, who left Texas A&M for the athletics director role at LSU last year, expressed support for the neutral-site setting of the game.
The game has been hailed as a way for both teams to play close to large alumni bases in the Dallas area, but both teams have made significant renovations to their stadiums since the Aggies moved to the SEC. Texas A&M spent $450 million to overhaul Kyle Field in a renovation that was finished in 2015, and Arkansas finished a $160 million renovation to Reynolds Razorback Stadium two years ago.
“After (2024) we really need to sit down with Arkansas and determine how do we get this game back on campus,” Bjork said. “Hunter and I will work together, and hopefully we can make that happen.”