Texas and Oklahoma are now officially members of the SEC, which means league administrators can end the charade of trying to pair Missouri with Arkansas as conference rivals.
Stop it. Stop it now.
Arkansas and Missouri are not rivals, even though a segment of Arkansas fans have grown increasingly irritated or maybe even jealous by the success Alma’s Eli Drinkwitz has had with the Tigers.
Texas is Arkansas’ No. 1 rival, always has been, and that’ll become apparent to a whole new generation of Razorback fans now that the Longhorns are SEC members.
In 1990, I sat in a packed room on the University of Arkansas campus and listened as Frank Broyles announced the Razorbacks were leaving the Southwest Conference and joining the SEC. There were cheers and smiles all around, including on the face of then-SEC Commissioner Roy Kramer, who donned a Hog hat for the occasion.
Days after the move, Broyles said he still wanted to keep Texas and Texas A&M on the schedule. There was some speculation Texas and Texas A&M would follow Arkansas into the SEC, but politics in the Lone Star State got in the way at the time and the Aggies broke free later.
No one with any influence on the matter stood in the way last week when the SEC welcomed Texas and Oklahoma into a conference that now includes 16 members. Even with expansion, the SEC was able to maintain a regional and cultural footprint unlike the Big Ten, which now extends from coast-to-coast after adding Oregon and Washington along with Southern Cal and UCLA.
I can’t think of anything a surfer dude in California has in common with an ice fisherman in Minnesota or with a guy in Maryland who loves to go sail boating with his sweater tied around his neck. Southerners from Texas to South Carolina argue about everything, including which state has the best barbecue. I prefer Memphis-style pork barbecue, although I’d never turn down a mesquite-smoked beef brisket from deep in the heart of Texas.
Southerners care passionately about football, and Arkansas fans who’ve been around for decades have experienced the heartache following losses to Texas. I’ve talked to grown men who still get misty-eyed while discussing the so-called “Game of the Century” on Dec. 6, 1969, when No. 1 Texas rallied from a 14-0 deficit to defeat No. 2 Arkansas 15-14 in Fayetteville. It’s not just that game where Arkansas appeared to be the better team only to see Texas prevail.
In 1977, long before I became a sports writer, I sat with a group of friends watching as Arkansas took a 9-0 lead over Texas. But just when victory for the Razorbacks appeared imminent, the Longhorns unleashed a brute of a man who changed the trajectory of the game.
Earl Campbell is his name, and he carried Porkers on his back or dragged them with his huge thighs for 188 yards that day. Texas completed only four passes in the game, but one was a screen pass to Campbell, who went 31 yards to set up the game-winning touchdown in a 13-9 victory for the Longhorns.
Crushed again and Texas adds to the agony by insisting beating Texas A&M or LSU is more important to its fans than beating Arkansas. Probably so, especially now with Arkansas in a prolonged tailspin for football.
In the old Southwest Conference, Arkansas could count on piling up wins before facing Texas each year. Not so in the SEC, where Arkansas will face Auburn, Texas A&M, Tennessee, LSU, Mississippi State and Ole Miss before tangling with Texas at home on Nov. 16. That’s an absolutely brutal schedule, but Texas doesn’t have it easy either, starting with a nonconference game on the road against defending national champion Michigan on Sept. 7. The Longhorns will then face Mississippi State, Oklahoma, Georgia, Vanderbilt and Florida as an SEC member before renewing its rivalry with Arkansas.
It’s a whole new world with the SEC clearly the dominant conference for football. Texas is here and they’ve brought Oklahoma along with them.
The only question is whether Arkansas is ready for the challenge.
