The SEC Network has a crawler that says the talks between the SEC and Texas and Oklahoma have been going on for about 6 months. If true, that is amazing.
In this microwave world, 6 months is a very long time. How did this remain a secret until a couple of days ago? Do you all think that is true?
I suspect there were less than 30 people total who knew what was up.
These things don’t happen overnight and it doesn’t get this far without knowing you got the votes.
aTm is unhappy and they’ll placate their fan base by voting NO, but they’ll be the only one.
This is a massive win for the SEC and for Arkansas particularly.
I hope so…tell me why you believe this.
In my opinion, the geography will help us a lot. We’ll have more games within driving distance for us fans. Just think, Norman, Columbia, A&M in Dallas, Oxford, and Starkville are easy for our fans. And Austin isn’t all that bad come to think of it.
In football we do not beat OU or UT for recruits in Texas. That is not where we make our living. We made our living by out evaluating everyone else down there and taking the kids UT and OU didn’t want, coaching them up, beating aTm on the reg and competing with UT.
Over the past decade our football program has shown nothing but incompetence. As such, Texas Tech, Baylor, TCU, Oklahoma State and possibly K State have more cache in the Lone Star state. Maybe even Houston and SMU.
UT and OU leaving the Big 12 hurts those aforementioned programs. They will not survive in their current state.
Anything that hurts Baylor, Texas Tech, Ok State and TCU is a HUGE win for UA. We now must become the best option for players UT and OU do not want. I believe we will.
In regards to the only other two sports I care about, basketball and baseball, we are better than OU and UT anyway. Bring it.
Texas has a good coach now they will be good soon. Okla already is good.
What if we outbid OU & TX with NIL money? Would that get the best players they want? If that wouldn’t do it then we may beat them every 3-4 years with coached up players.
Based on what?
My dream.
Based on Bama’s offense last few years.
Yes it remains to be seen how Sark transforms the Texas culture. But he will recruit really good players.
It’s bad for Arkansas and the SEC.
But $$$$ hath no odor.
What about Sark’s record as a head coach?
Why?
Hog2009 gets it …… this post is spot on
The move is better for the SEC conference but not good for Arkansas. Said the same thing when A/M came in, the best subject we could put in front of a Texas recruit is we played in the SEC when recruiting against Texas schools and they don’t. We owned A/M in our annual game until they joined the conference and A/M’s recruiting then went to a totally different level. We can’t compete in football as it is in the SEC, so what advantage does this give us playing two more blue bloods on regular or semi-regular basis (and Texas won’t stay down forever)? I bet if you got an honest answer from Pitt on the subject, he would tell you the same. It is however, one hell of a way to drive more Hog fans to the basketball and baseball bandwagon… so we have that.
Why ?
Getting into business with Texas is bad. They will come in and destroy the SEC as I have said many times in posts elsewhere. They’ll come in smiling and back slapping and proclaiming brotherly love while they slowly slip the knife in your back. That’s Texas. There’s a reason the two universities that most recently had dealings with Texas want nothing to do with them — Mizzou and A&M. Ask Nebraska how they feel about Texas. Texas came in and destroyed a proud old conference of which Nebraska was a charter member. A&M has been dealing with their bunch of crooks for more than a century, They finally found a way to get away from them, and a few hundred million dollars later — they’re back, and there’s nothing apparently they can do about it. Arkansas knew all about doing business with Texas, but all those folks are too old and dead now, ancient history having not been an issue now in over 30 years.
Texas will wreak havoc and stir up trouble and disunity in the conference. I suspect a year or two after they join, they’ll start whining about how it’s not fair that schools like Arkansas, the Mississippis, Kentucky, Carolina, Tennessee, Mizzou, etc, get an equal share of the revenue — when the big money is really all about Texas. And by then Texas will have Alabama, Florida, and Georgia on their side. So then Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Georgia, Florida — maybe A&M and LSU — say they’ll have to leave the SEC and go do their own things if we little schools don’t give them their fair share of the pie and take less. You can take this to the bank — pun intended.
And that’s just the money part. You can expect a lot of things to happen in terms of scheduling, etc, that are good for Texas, bad for Arkansas, unfair and not equitable — and the SEC response will be — “we have to do what Texas says”.
Remember how we lost our Thanksgiving rivalry game with LSU because newcomer Texas A&M said they wanted that game — so we got stuck into an artificial and meaningless rivalry game with Missouri — no history and fans from both schools could care less. You can expect all of this and more once Texas joins the league.
I’ve done my homework, made my phone calls — and at this point complaining and pleading with the PTB to block this is pointless. It’s a done deal. And an extra $13 million or more in annual revenue make it an impossible “no”. But in the long run, it will prove to be bad for Arkansas. Texas joining the SEC is step one in the undoing of the SEC. We’re on the road to some sort of National Collegiate Football League — Texas, Bama, Oklahoma, Georgia and Florida will definitely be invited, Arkansas will be left behind with our friends in Mississippi and Missouri. Check in in with Baylor, Tech and Oklahoma State on how it feels — it’s coming.
All that being said — this is inevitable — going to happen whether we let Texas into the SEC or not. If we make the smart decision and tell Texas to take their burnt orange toxicity elsewhere, all we’re doing is buying maybe another 5 years or so — so looking long term, maybe not so smart to block Texas — maybe the smart thing is to take the big money now and worry about the future when it happens. Let’s hope we have a plan in place.
College football as we have known it is over; there are lots of places where this could be heading and none of it is good for Arkansas football. I foresee how a lot of this is going to happen; if I get time, I’ll post that later.
Well, hell, let’s just give up then. Forfeit everything, if we’re doomed to permanent irrelevancy.
BS - defeatist drivel in terms of the ability to compete with TX, OU, and A&M provided we have top notch coaches and administrators.
With respect to the longer term - you may be right, but I think the club will be big enough for Arkansas to have a seat at the table. Lots of current P5s won’t - private schools, smaller state schools, etc.
When you cannot refute another’s opinion with facts and logic, you call it a name like “defeatist drivel”. Elevate the discussion, don’t call names and toss about insults, please, just state your position and why you disagree.
To be clear, I’m talking about the business aspects of dealing with Texas and the business of running a conference. It might have been another post, but I also stated the the facts about what happened when A&M joined the SEC — we got run over like an unwanted stray dog.
We got run over on the day after Thanksgiving game because A&M AND longtime SEC member LSU wanted it - that combined stroke got it done. Not an A&M on their own.
When someone says Arkansas, with competent coaching and leadership, can’t compete with A&M I’ll keep calling it drivel.
This ain’t the Big 12 or the SWC. We got 5 Texas’. UT ain’t gonna run anything.