Neutrality sticking point in SEC games
Kirby Smart made a comment last week in Atlanta with possible long-term ramifications for his and other Southeastern Conference football teams.
Smart, whose Georgia squad defeated Alabama in January for the Bulldogs’ first national championship since 1980, said it might be time to move Georgia’s annual blood feud with rival Florida to college campuses. That is, one year ‘tween the hedges at Sanford Stadium in Athens and the next year in the Swamp on Steve Spurrier-Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville.
The Florida-Georgia game, alternately referred to as “the world’s largest outdoor cocktail party,” is played annually (since 1945) in Jacksonville, Florida, on the site of the former Gator (now TaxSlayer) Bowl. Each team gets a week off before to think about nothing but each other and for passion to build among recruits who might be considering either squad.
In perhaps the most famous such game, Georgia beat Florida 26-21 in 1980, en route to the national championship, on a short pass from Buck Belue that Lindsay Scott took 93 yards on third and seven with less than a minute left. Georgia announcer Larry Munson’s call is justifiably famous, to the point of noting the rented beachfront property on nearby Jekyll Island that Bulldog fans might destroy that night in celebration.
Smart, in a position of strength, advocates a scheduling change. And for a most logical reason: recruiting, the lifeblood of any program.
With the game now played on a neutral site, prospective players on both sides may not use it as an official recruiting visit. Gone is a chance for a recruit to watch a classic SEC game, one possibly won by his school of choice. Kentucky at Florida or Vanderbilt at Georgia might not carry the same clout with a coveted future Bulldog or Gator.
Other SEC rivalries have switched to campus sites, notably Alabama vs. Auburn (once played at venerable Legion Field in Birmingham). Regarding two future SEC schools, the Oklahoma-Texas series is so encompassing that it demands a venue like the Cotton Bowl in Dallas; whether the Red River Rivalry will move to campus (Austin one year, Norman the next) remains to be seen, their switch from the Big 12 due in 2025.
What does this have to do with the Arkansas Razorbacks, you ask? Only this: It is becoming increasingly untenable for the Hogs to play in two in-state stadiums, leaving Fayetteville every few years for a game in Little Rock, where Arkansas once was a frequent occupant of War Memorial Stadium (constructed, and don’t we know it, in 1948).
Little Rock is not on the Arkansas dance card for 2022, the Razorbacks having played Arkansas-Pine Bluff there last year and scheduled to return in 2025 for an in-state skirmish against Arkansas State.
Though the upcoming home schedule is appealing (three straight early, starting with the Sept. 3 opener against Cincinnati, and including games against SEC rivals Alabama, LSU and Ole Miss), the Razorbacks will play in state only one time (that against Alabama Oct. 1) from Sept. 17 until Nov. 5.
Included will be games in four states, asking a lot of the most diehard boosters in a time of skyrocketing gas and ticket prices.
That’s a long time between drinks in a luxury suite at Reynolds Razorback Stadium.
Arkansas is locked into a series with league rival Texas A&M in Arlington, Texas, where both teams play in Dallas Cowboy owner (and UA graduate) Jerry Jones’ pleasure dome. If meant to woo Texas recruits, the Southwest Classic fails because neither Arkansas nor A&M prospects can use it as an official visit. On its own, it is not likely to reach Oklahomavs.-Texas dimensions.
So, whatever your feelings on the Great Stadium Debate in Arkansas, Little
Rock vs. Fayetteville, give the late Frank Broyles, godfather of Razorback athletics, credit for looking ahead and seeing a day when UA home games would be played in his backyard to the program’s benefit. I’ll grant Hunter Yurachek, the current AD, not Broyles with the early insight for playing Arkansas State if he has it coming.