FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas athletics director Hunter Yurachek said Wednesday he expects a change of venue in the Razorbacks’ football series against Texas A&M following the 2024 season.
Arkansas is under contract with AT&T Stadium to play the Aggies in Arlington, Texas, the next four seasons, but both programs appear eager to move on from the neutral-site series that began in 2009 and has been played on campus just three times since.
The series began as a nonconference game while Texas A&M was a member of the Big 12. The Aggies joined the SEC in 2012.
The series was moved to the teams’ campuses for two seasons after Texas A&M joined the SEC and, with the exception of 2020, has been played in Arlington each year since the teams agreed to an 11-game neutral-site contract that began in 2014.
Given that Arkansas played at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas, last fall and is the designated home team in odd-numbered years, Yurachek said the Razorbacks would be in line to host the Aggies Fayetteville in 2025.
"What I will tell you is (Aggies athletics director) Ross Bjork and the folks at Texas A&M have made it abundantly clear that when the contract is over with AT&T Stadium, they would like to see those games back on campus following the 2024 season,” Yurachek said. “After that, I foresee those games moving back on campus."
Over the next five seasons, Arkansas is scheduled to play 18 of 20 SEC home games at Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, Yurachek said. The outliers are its meetings with Texas A&M in 2022 and 2024.
The Razorbacks were scheduled to play Missouri in Little Rock in 2021 and 2023, but those games were moved back to Arkansas' campus as part of a restructured agreement between the Razorbacks and War Memorial Stadium.
Bjork and former Texas A&M athletics director Eric Hyman have have been critical of the game with the Razorbacks that was initially agreed upon in 2008 when Bill Byrne led the Aggies’ athletics department and Jeff Long was Arkansas’ athletics director.
Both programs have made renovations to their stadiums since Texas A&M moved to the SEC. The Aggies spent $450 million to overhaul Kyle Field in a renovation that was finished in 2015, and Arkansas completed a $160 million renovation to Reynolds Razorback Stadium in 2018.
“We think this game deserves to be on campus,” Bjork said in October. “It’s an SEC game. We need to play as many of those games on our campus as possible.”
Yurachek noted that he recently visited with Razorbacks football coach Sam Pittman to discuss the direction and future of the program, and scheduling was among the primary topics. Pittman stressed the importance of playing more SEC games in Fayetteville.
“I wouldn't be telling you the truth if I didn't tell you that the finances of having another SEC game versus potentially an FCS game (on campus) are not significant,” Yurachek said. “But the No. 1 driver was the competitive advantage that Coach Pittman believes it has for his football program for us to play SEC games here on campus.”