4 for governor talk ASU, UA matchup

Republican gubernatorial nominee Asa Hutchinson and Democratic candidate Mike Ross said Friday that they would like to see the Arkansas Razorbacks face the Arkansas State Red Wolves on the football field.

But they said they don’t want to pass a law requiring a game between the in-state rivals.

It’s an age-old debate in Arkansas.

Nineteen months ago, a bill requiring the two schools’ football teams to complete in a one-time football game failed to clear the state House of Representatives’ Rules Committee.

The bill — sponsored by Rep. Andy Mayberry, R-East End — would have required the two universities to play a game at War Memorial Stadium and distributed the estimated ticket proceeds to Arkansas Childrens Hospital.

Similar legislation was filed in 2001 by then-Rep. David Rackley of Sherwood that would have created an annual football game between the schools. In a 2072 vote, the House rejected the measure that also would have required the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, Arkansas State University, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff to play one another in an annual basketball tournament with the net proceeds

benefiting Meals on Wheels.

Hutchinson of Rogers, a former 3rd District congressman, said Friday that he “would encourage ASU and UA to play.

“It just makes sense for the universities and the state from an economic aspect. I do not believe the decision should include legislation action,” he said in a written statement.

Hutchinson also said that War Memorial Stadium is “an economic driver for the state, especially central Arkansas, and it needs to be utilized for big games.”

Ross of Little Rock, a former 4th District congressman, said that “as a sports fan, I’d love to see these two great teams play each other.

“But that’s something that should be worked out by the schools themselves and not required by legislation,” he said in a written statement.

“As governor, I would rather our state Legislature focus on strengthening Arkansas’ middle class by improving education, lowering taxes and creating more and better-paying jobs.”

Current Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe “has always said [ an ASU and UA- Fayetteville football game] would be a good thing for the state, but that any such decision would need to be made by the universities, not the government,” said Beebe spokesman Matt DeCample.

Mayberry, sponsor of the 2013 football bill, said UA-Fayetteville Chancellor G. David Gearhart and Athletic Director Jeff Long told him then that they have no intention of scheduling a game with ASU in foreseeable future.

Mayberry also said Friday that there “are a tremendous number of obstacles in the way” of the two universities playing each other in football.

“I don’t know if it would ever happen, but I would love to see it,” he said.

Arkansas State University System President Chuck Welch said he’s never talked to Gearhart about the possibility of ASU playing UA on the football field.

“My philosophy is we continue building our program and being the best we can be ,and we will just go wherever the future takes us,” he said.

UA-Fayetteville spokesman Steve Voorhies Friday night that he couldn’t comment about the chances of the UA playing ASU in football in the future.

Meanwhile, Green Party gubernatorial nominee Joshua Drake of Hot Springs said that “as governor, I will stay out of football and focus on my job.”

Libertarian gubernatorial nominee Frank Gilbert of Tull said that “these kind of questions” are “one of the reasons that I’d love to see both schools and all other state-supported institutions of higher learning become totally independent of the government.

“Personally, I’d love to see the two largest schools in the state play a regular home- and- home game every year,” he said. “But how I feel about it, whether I become governor or remain a private citizen, shouldn’t matter.

“How the Legislature or individual legislators view it shouldn’t matter either,” Gilbert said.