FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – It’s borderline unattainable to make Arkansas followers care concerning the Liberty Bowl.

Razorback followers are so disinterested that we had a gathering to debate whether or not to disregard it as a result of our clicks fall off up to now when the second we sort the phrase Liberty Bowl that it is would not make good fiscal sense to place time into it. 

The numbers actually fall beneath what’s generated by a Sunday night time Arkansas ladies’s basketball.

Not even the story of protecting the Liberty Bowl with the precise Elvis Presley was sufficient to ask a click on if it meant acknowledging the Razorback soccer group has a recreation in Memphis this week.

However do not take our monetary stories for it. Have a look at the Liberty Bowl itself.

Go surfing and attempt to purchase a ticket. Not solely are there loads of them, however they’re obtainable on the principle Liberty Bowl buying website. 

And that is AFTER Christmas. With costs almost half what it prices to go to a recreation in Fayetteville.

For many who do not buy large occasion tickets on the common, discovering something apart from possibly one or two single seats on the precise occasion ticket website is all the time a foul signal. These tickets are normally scooped up by second-hand sellers and instantly marked up due to demand.

But, there’s the Liberty Bowl with 56 levels and sunny within the forecast for a day recreation with a vastly uncared for section of the Arkansas fan base so shut that journey by horseback can be affordable transportation and large swaths of unbelievably low cost tickets can be found throughout the stadium roughly the identical measurement as Struggle Memorial Stadium.

The sport is three days after Christmas, and, at worst, somebody must take off work slightly early to make it, however nobody is shopping for.

So why?

Is it as a result of followers who got here into the yr with unreasonably excessive expectations really feel let down and simply need to be finished with the season?

Is it as a result of Memphis has all of the vacationer attract of a Denny’s subsequent to an deserted Ok-Mart?

Is it as a result of a lot drama has occurred because the week earlier than Thanksgiving that Arkansas followers simply want some area?

Is it as a result of bowl video games actually not matter past getting in slightly further observe towards subsequent season?

Is it as a result of the opponent is Kansas and nobody is even certain the Jayhawks play soccer?

The reply is the entire above. 

Followers are down on Razorback soccer and in full basketball mode proper now. They do not need to be drug down with all the luggage Sam Pittman’s group is carrying proper now whereas convention play kicks off for Eric Musselman’s group of Supermen on the identical day.

Followers are type of over it at this level and are making that clear with their pocketbooks and faucets of their cellular phone screens.

Memphis is the a part of the journey to Nashville that vacationers dread, so few individuals are trying ahead to an evening in “Grind Metropolis.” 

To high all of it off, a metropolis subsequent to the most important river in america has no water due to a water primary break and will not have any till nicely after Razorback followers go away. Downtown motels are reportedly not permitting visitors to verify in as of this writing.

As for Kansas, their very own followers do not even need to observe them to Memphis and even on-line. Their soccer group has 113,000 followers on Twitter, the bottom of any Energy 5 college we have linked to in social media posts over the previous two seasons.

That is roughly 10 % of what the Jayhawks basketball group has following it. Not 10 % much less, 10 % complete.

After all, that is part of America that’s normally heavier on Fb customers. Issues is likely to be extra even there.

It’s technically nearer. The lads’s basketball group has 400,000 followers on Fb versus the 92,000 who observe the soccer group, so solely 4.35 instances bigger there.

To place that in perspective, Mississippi State, which has arguably the smallest fan base so far as general inhabitants within the SEC, has 302,000 followers on Twitter and 202,000 on Fb.

Even Vanderbilt, which is never on tv and performs dwelling video games in an empty stadium has over 100,000 followers on Fb.

You realize these spotlight recaps for soccer video games which are really easy to seek out on YouTube? Examine and see how straightforward it’s to seek out one in every of Kansas soccer, a lot much less a complete season’s value to do analysis on this Jayhawks group.

They’re like ghosts. Some folks imagine they exist, however what little proof that is out there’s so sketchy, it is laborious to make sure it is actual.

So all that provides as much as a single query.

What would be the ultimate order when it comes to viewership for the next video games?

Arkansas soccer vs. Kansas within the Liberty Bowl (ESPN/fuboTV, Wed. 4:30 p.m.)

No. 9 Arkansas males’s basketball at LSU (ESPN 2/fuboTV, Wed. 8 p.m.)

No. 17 Arkansas ladies’s basketball vs. Kim Mulkey’s No. 10 LSU Tigers (ESPN 2/fuboTV, Thurs. 6 p.m.)

The truth that there’s professional thought available concerning the order apart from that the boys’s basketball recreation would go within the high spot says sufficient concerning the lack of curiosity within the Liberty Bowl.

The Arkansas spring recreation might be thrown in for good measure and the bowl recreation may nonetheless end fourth. 

However that is simply the place issues are for the time being. Razorback soccer and the Arkansas followers have gone to the separate rooms in the home for a while to chill off.

They will all meet again downstairs after a couple of months, simply in time to interrupt the ice as soon as once more over discuss of spring observe.

Till then, benefit from the SEC stretch of school basketball and keep out of downtown Memphis.

HOGS FEED:

WITH WILL WADE’S RIC FLAIR STYLE PERSONA GONE, PLAYING LSU BASKETBALL JUST NOT AS FUN

RAZORBACKS’ NUMBERS BETTER WHEN QUARTERBACK KJ JEFFERSON DOESN’T RUN AS MUCH

THE NIGHT A 19-YEAR-OLD ARKANSAS BOY COVERED THE LIBERTY BOWL WITH ELVIS PRESLEY

PREPARE FOR HEART OF BOWL SEASON WITH HILARIOUS VIDEO RECAP OF EACH WEEK

ARKANSAS FEATURED IN ANNUAL “WONDERFUL LIFE” PARODY

ANNUAL CHRISTMAS FUN AT THE EXPENSE OF THE TEXAS LONGHORNS

TOP RAZORBACK SIGNEE HAS NFL EXPERIENCE UNDER HIS BELT

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS: ARKANSAS VS. UNC-ASHVILLE HAD PLENTY TO SEE

HOW DOES LIBERTY BOWL LINE-UP COMPARE TO OPENER VS. CINCINNATI?

WHAT ARE THE RAZORBACKS GETTING IN ANTONIO GRIER, JR?

PITTMAN, KIFFIN, FISHER SHARE SAME NIL VIEWS DESPITE COMING FROM DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES

WORRY ALL YOU WANT, BUT NICK SMITH’S SITUATION MIGHT BE GAME-TO-GAME FOR A LONG TIME

NOTHING TO INDICATE SMITH MISSING ASHVILLE GAME TIED TO WHAT HAPPENED AGAINST BRADLEY

RAZORBACKS WILL HAVE TO GO IT ALONE IN QUEST FOR NO. 1 SEED

HOGS’ SAM PITTMAN ON WHY RELYING ON PLANE TRACKERS CAN GET PRETTY RISKY FOR FANS

RAZORBACK FOOTBALL HAS GOTTEN UGLY AND IT MAY GET WORSE BEFORE IT GETS BETTER

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