The Arkansas football team got its 22nd commitment for the 2026 class in Shreveport (La.) Evangel athlete Ashton Dawson, he announced on Twitter Friday. Dawson competed in a 7-on-7 tournament on campus earlier in the week with Evangel.

Dawson, 6-foot-2, 285 pounds, plays running back and defensive line. He logged 103 tackles as a junior, including 17 for loss, four sacks, plus forced a fumble and blocked a field goal. He is being recruited in college as a fullback/H-back, per sources.

Offensively, Dawson rushed two times for 24 yards with two touchdowns, plus caught two passes for 15 yards and a score for the Eagles.

Along with Arkansas, Dawson also reported offers from Florida State, Grambling State, Jackson State and Troy.

Click here to see the full 2026 class.

A lawsuit filed in the Eastern District of Arkansas seeks to halt the state’s Educational Freedom Account program, on the grounds that it violates the United States Constitution by allowing public funds to be used for the support of private religious schools and discriminates against disabled children.

The lawsuit assigned to U.S. District Judge D.P. Marshall Jr. was filed June 13 by four plaintiffs currently engaged in a separate legal challenge that claims the program violates the Arkansas Constitution.

The plaintiffs are Gwen Faulkenberry, Special Renee Sanders, Anika Whitfield and Kimberly Crutchfield, who are represented by Richard H. Mays and Hannah Allison Gore Gipson of the Little Rock-based Richard Mays Law Firm. Faulkenberry, who lives in the Ozark School District, has been a columnist for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette since 2021.

The defendants include Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the Arkansas Department of Education, the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration, Education Secretary Jacob Oliva, secretary of the Department of Finance and Administration Jim Hudson and each of the nine-member state Board of Education, who are represented by state Attorney General Tim Griffin’s office.

In their complaint, the plaintiffs claim the Educational Freedom Account program — referred to throughout the document as “the Voucher Program” — violates the establishment clause of the First Amendment, which prohibits the government from favoring one religion over others. Their filing also claims the program violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, which mandates that people in similar circumstances receive the same treatment under the law. Finally, the complaint asserts the program violates Article 2, Section 24 of the Arkansas Constitution, which prohibits people from being compelled to attend any place of worship against their consent and bars the state from giving preference by law to religious establishments, denominations or modes of worship “above any other.”

“The LEARNS Act is, through the use of public funds of the State of Arkansas, creating a separate and unequal dual school system of public and private schools, the latter of which, as a regular part of their curricula, teach the doctrines of particular religious, creeds and sects as a means of the establishment, encouragement, development and perpetuation of such religions, creeds and sects,” the complaint states. The plaintiffs claim that system also “denies the equal protection of the laws available and applicable to Arkansas school children based on economic, racial and physical characteristics and abilities,” and creates a “system of private schools that are not available to all school children in Arkansas because such private schools are not located in and accessible to school children in many rural areas of the State of Arkansas.”

Asked for comment on the lawsuit, Sam Dubke, spokesman for the governor’s office, said in an email: “This suit has no merit. More than 44,000 students have applied for EFAs for next school year and far-left activists are playing politics with those kids’ futures to try and protect a failed status quo.”

In an earlier statement, Griffin praised the education overhaul, adding that he “successfully defended the LEARNS Act and will eagerly do it again.”

It always seemed like the path to the championship series of the College World Series was going to pass through “The Boot.”

“The Boot” is the trophy annually presented to the winner of the football game between the University of Arkansas and LSU — an idea, now a tradition, founded by David Bazzel.

The Razorbacks and the Tigers were the top two seeded teams to make it to the College World Series. Of course, the bracket had them playing in the first game, won by LSU 4-1 on Saturday.

With strong pitching and 10-hit games the Razorbacks got by Murray State and UCLA set up a Wednesday rematch with LSU.

After Saturday’s win the Tigers had an all-time record of 80-45 against the Razorbacks, However, the team that has an overall CWS record of 47-29 and seven championship trophies has not owned Arkansas the last six seasons.

They didn’t play in 2020 when the world of sports was canceled due to covid-19, but Arkansas is 12-6 in regular-season play against LSU and 1-1 in NCAA Tournament games since 2019.

Even in the years when LSU’s football team was having an off season — not that often really — the Tiger fans always had baseball. Not so much basketball though.

Arkansas is similar to LSU in that way, and it’s why the “Omahogs” have such a great following. Success breeds loyalty.

The Razorback football team needs a competitive season this fall. Basketball will be fine, maybe even better than that.

So, on the subject of football, while the LSU baseball team is trying to bring some athletic glory home, back home legislation is pending that would raise the sports betting tax from from 15% to 21.5%.

That would produce an additional $24.3 million for the state’s 11 public universities that compete on the Division I level.

All the money, every cent, would go to the football programs to help fund benefits of student athletes. It won’t directly go to name, image and likeness, which remains separate for athletes despite going on the payroll next month.

With the House v. NCAA settlement’s approval, schools next year will be allowed to directly pay athletes up to $20.5 million.

Earlier this year, Arkansas was the first state to do away with state income tax on NIL money. Others quickly followed suit.

I couldn’t find any direct breakdown of the $24.3 million for football, but the guess here it will not be divided equally.

In Louisiana, LSU is the tail that wags the dog. The straw that stirs the drink. What turns fans into fanatics.

There is a reason no team wants to play football on a Saturday night in Baton Rouge as tens of thousands of fans tailgate and hydrate all day.

It is a semi-controlled frenzy by kickoff in the evening and something every college football fan should experience at least once.

It is interesting to say the least. Walk by one tailgate and they’ll offer you gumbo, stop at the next and they’ll offer you a tail whipping — do not accept, walk on by.

Superstition says if Mike the Tiger is outside his caged cave, you might as well go home, your team has no chance.

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry is expected to sign off on the tax cut because it is a wildly popular idea in the state.

So back home the talk is football, but in Omaha we have the baseball Tigers, second in CWS championships behind only Southern Cal’s 12. Its last was in 1998. Since then LSU has won three championships.

This was a spectacular baseball season for most of the SEC, which has added basketball to its national athletic resume, and two of the best were going at it Wednesday with everything on the line.