FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas’ men’s basketball team will play Texas in an exhibition game in October, it was announced Tuesday.
The Razorbacks and Longhorns are scheduled to meet in Austin, Texas, on Oct. 29 at 3 p.m. The game will be televised by Longhorn Network, according to a release.
The release states there is a charity component to the matchup. Texas has chosen to donate proceeds to a pair of organizations (Seedling Foundation, Break the Pipeline) that support social justice equity and educational opportunities for youth in Central Texas.
The exhibition will be the first Texas basketball game at the $375 million Moody Center, the Longhorns’ new basketball arena.
“The Arkansas-Texas rivalry is one of the great rivalries in college athletics,” Razorbacks coach Eric Musselman said in the release. “The fact that we were chosen to open the Moody Center adds to our storied history and lays the foundation for the future when Texas joins the league.
“When (Texas head) Coach (Chris) Beard approached us to play this exhibition, we were all in. We have a lot of respect for Coach Beard and think this will be a great way to start the season prior to the actual season opener. I’ve said in the past, we get a lot more out of playing these Division I exhibitions. It will give us a great opportunity to see where we stand and what we will need to work on.”
The game will mark the first off-campus exhibition for the Razorbacks since the 1991-92 season, when Arkansas played the German National team in Little Rock.
According to the release, current Texas season ticket holders will be given the first opportunity to purchase seats from Sept. 27-Oct. 10. Longhorn Foundation donors who are not season ticket holders will be able to purchase seats from Oct. 14-Oct. 16.
If any seats are available after those windows, the general public will be able to purchase tickets on Monday, Oct. 17.
Texas finished the 2021-22 season at 22-12 overall and 10-8 in Big 12 play. The Longhorns were a No. 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament and advanced to the round of 32.
Beard is entering his second season as head coach at Texas after stints at Arkansas-Little Rock and Texas Tech.
Arkansas held its first official practice of the preseason on Monday. The Razorbacks are scheduled to open the 2022-23 season with a Nov. 7 home game against North Dakota State.