A scheduling note, kind of

[ScottieBordelon]

Arkansas State dropped its full schedule on Wednesday. The Razorbacks are not on it.

So, Arkansas will not play UCA, UALR or Arkansas State during the regular season.

[tjd63]

I think Muss was a little surprised how little the in state competition interested Hog fans the past couple of years. Even though the games were sold out by season ticket sales, attendance was pretty light for the November and December games last year. UCA and UALR didn’t create any more excitement than the other low major teams that dotted the schedule before SEC play began. I suspect ASU would have been very similar. So much for the pushing for in state scheduling by the LR media. Only yawns from Razorback fans.

[jeremy]

I hope Muss and HY have both learned that Arkansas is unique and that there is only one program in this state that matters. Playing the others only brings your SOS down. Why bother?

[adgebg]

Call it shooting yourself in the foot.

[nlrbuzzard]

We may have crossed a dividing line with the Big Dance success the last two years and the higher visibility that’s created for regular season play. We are getting more access to better opponents on neutral courts, which squeezes the number of cupcakes you can play.

Additionally, Muss seems to schedule his non-marquee teams with a specific purpose-there’s something about an opponent that he wants his team to confront to make it better down the road. If you have a particular strength/system/match-up problem in mind for those games, the better the opponent is the more the team will get out of it. For this year, anyway, Muss likely concluded there were stronger options available for what he wanted to accomplish. It’s not an attempt to belittle the in-state schools, they just did not offer a good option for what Muss wanted for this year’s team.