The Southeastern Conference released the men’s basketball conference opponents for the 2024-25 season on Monday. The Razorbacks will play LSU, Missouri and new league foe/long-time rival Texas twice during the regular season, once at home and once on the road.

Arkansas will additionally host Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Ole Miss, Mississippi State and new league member Oklahoma once while traveling to Auburn, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt for single games.

Conference play tips off on Saturday, Jan. 4, and runs through Saturday, Mar. 8. Each SEC team plays the other 15 teams at least once during league play. Three teams will be played a second time during the schedule – two of which are permanent opponents and one that will change each year. The continuation and renewal of historic rivalries was a point of emphasis when creating the schedule as the SEC welcomes Oklahoma and Texas as new members.

Times, dates and television information will be announced at a later date.

Arkansas 2024-25 SEC Opponents

HOME GAMES

Alabama

Florida

Georgia

LSU

Ole Miss

Mississippi State

Missouri

Oklahoma

Texas

AWAY GAMES

at Auburn

at Kentucky

at LSU

at Missouri

at South Carolina

at Tennessee

at Texas

at Texas A&M

at Vanderbilt

NOTES:

• While the Arkansas-Texas series dates back to the Razorbacks’ first season of basketball (1923-24), this year will mark Texas’ first trip to Bud Walton Arena since coming to Fayetteville in both 2009 and 2010. Arkansas won, 67-61, versus then #7 Texas on Jan. 6, 2009, with then #2 Texas winning, 96-85, the following year (Jan. 5, 2010).

• Arkansas owns an 87-68 advantage in the all-time series versus the Longhorns. The home team has had a decided advantage in the series as Arkansas leads 46-22 in games played in Fayetteville and Texas leads 42-27 in games played in Austin. Arkansas built is 19-game lead in the series by going 14-4 versus Texas in neutral-site games.
• Arkansas opened Texas’ new basketball arena – the Moody Center – on Oct. 29, 2022, in an exhibition game.^ The last time the two programs officially met was the 2018-19 season opener at the ESPN Armed Forces Classic in El Paso on Nov. 9, 2018. Texas won 73-71 in overtime.^ The last time Arkansas and Texas had a home-and-home series in the same season was Arkansas’s final season in the Southwest Conference (1990-91). Then #2 Arkansas defeated Texas, 101-89, on Jan. 10, 1991, in Fayetteville. Later, then #23 Texas upset then #3 Arkansas, 99-86, in Austin on Mar. 3, 1991. The Razorbacks went on to win the rubber match on Mar. 10, 1991, when then #5 Arkansas beat then #23 Texas, 120-89, to win the 1991 SWC Tournament Championship in Dallas.
• Texas is one of six schools that Arkansas has faced at least 100 times. The Razorbacks and Longhorns have met on 155 previous occasions, which ties SMU for the second-most meetings versus a school. Texas A&M leads the way with 169 all-time meetings.

• Arkansas will host new SEC member Oklahoma in a single-game matchup. The two programs have met in each of the previous three years at Tulsa’s BOK Center for the Crimson and Cardinal Classic. The “home team” won each of those games, including the Sooners winning 88-66 on Dec. 11, 2021, and 79-70, on Dec. 9, 2023. The Razorbacks won, 88-78, on Dec. 10, 2022. Prior to the series in Tulsa, the programs had not met since Nov. 23, 2017, at the Phil Knight Invitational in Portland. The last time the two teams met in a true home game for either program was Dec. 4, 2012, when the Razorbacks beat the Sooners, 81-78, in Bud Walton Arena. Arkansas owns a 17-14 all-time advantage in the series, including an 8-4 mark in Fayetteville.

• Arkansas and Missouri will be playing a home-and-home series for the 13th consecutive year. The streak coincides with the number of years since the Tigers joined the SEC (2012-13). Arkansas leads the all-time series with Missouri, 35-27, and leads 16-9 since Mizzou joined the SEC, including wins in seven of the last eight meetings.

• Arkansas and LSU have met for a home-and-home series in all but two seasons since the Razorbacks joined the SEC (1991-92). The Razorbacks and Tigers only met once in 2013 (in Baton Rouge) and just once in 2015 (in Fayetteville). Arkansas leads the Tigers 39-31 since the Razorbacks joined the SEC, leads 43-36 all-time and has won eight of the last 13 versus LSU. In fact, since Arkansas joined the SEC, the Tigers are the Razorbacks’ most common SEC opponent with 70 meetings followed by Mississippi State (60), Alabama (59), Auburn (59) and Ole Miss (57).

• After back-to-back years of playing Kentucky in a home-and-home series, the Razorbacks will only face the Wildcats once in 2024-25 and the game will be played at Rupp Arena.

• For just the third time since Texas A&M joined the SEC (2012-13), Arkansas and the Aggies will meet just once in the regular season. The other times it happened were 2015 – a single game in Fayetteville – and 2014 – a single game in College Station. (NOTE: The two programs were scheduled to play home-and-home in 2021 but only played once in Bud Walton Arena as the game set to be played in Reed Arena was canceled due to COVID-19.) Arkansas leads the all-time series with the Aggies, 108-61, and, thanks to a season sweep this past year, the Razorbacks own a 13-10 advantage since A&M joined the SEC. The home teams have dominated the series over the last 13 seasons as Arkansas is 10-1 versus the Aggies at home and Texas A&M is 7-3 versus the Razorbacks in College Station.

• For the fifth straight year, long-time rivals Arkansas and Ole Miss will only play once. In their history, the Razorbacks and Rebels have met on 86 previous occasions, which is second to Texas A&M (169) for all-time meetings among current SEC programs. LSU is the next closest for all-time meetings among SEC programs at 79.

• Arkansas and Tennessee will only play once and it will be in Knoxville. The schedule has favored the Volunteers of late. Including this coming year and since 2018-19 – a seven-year span, six games will have been played in Knoxville compared to three in Fayetteville. The teams have only had two home-and-home series over the span. Including this year, Arkansas and Tennessee are set to play just once in a season for the fifth time, four in Knoxville while Tennessee has only had to come to Bud Walton once in such years.

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Arguing that the issue is moot, voting-rights groups on Friday urged an appeals court to reject an attempt by the state House and Senate to shield lawmakers and legislative staff members from testifying in redistricting lawsuits.

Lawyers for the groups filed a 44-page brief at the 1st District Court of Appeal that said they decided in December 2022 not to continue seeking depositions of lawmakers and staff members as part of a constitutional challenge to a congressional redistricting plan passed in spring 2022.

As a result, the groups said an appeal of an October 2022 decision by a Leon County circuit judge that could have led to depositions is moot.

But attorneys for the House and the Senate have continued pursuing the appeal, arguing that a legal concept known as “legislative privilege” bars requiring testimony from lawmakers. Ultimately, the House and Senate want to take the issue to the Florida Supreme Court and to undo a 2013 ruling that allowed such testimony in certain circumstances.

The voting-rights groups’ brief said that “in December 2022, there was no longer a live issue — or even the threat of one — for this (appeals) court to resolve.”

“This appeal is unquestionably moot,” the brief said. “It challenges the circuit court’s October 27, 2022, order allowing appellees (the voting-rights groups) to depose a limited subset of legislators and staff involved in the 2022 congressional redistricting process on a limited number of topics. But those depositions never happened.”

In a March 11 brief, however, attorneys for the House and the Senate argued that the “appeal raises questions of great public importance” and that the 1st District Court of Appeal should send the case to the Florida Supreme Court. The Legislature ultimately wants the Supreme Court to “recede” — essentially reverse course — from the 2013 ruling in a case known as Apportionment IV.

“Apportionment IV erred in rejecting an absolute legislative privilege in civil cases and instead establishing a shapeless, standardless balancing analysis as the purported safeguard of the prerogatives of the legislative branch,” the March brief said. “That error threatens the legislative process with grave consequences and should be overruled.”

A coalition of groups, such as the League of Women Voters of Florida and Equal Ground Education Fund, and individual plaintiffs filed a lawsuit in 2022 challenging the constitutionality of a redistricting plan that Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed through the Legislature. They contend the plan violated a 2010 constitutional amendment that set redistricting standards, including a standard that said plans could not “diminish” the ability of minorities to “elect representatives of their choice.”

The 1st District Court of Appeal in December 2023 upheld the constitutionality of the plan, and the groups have appealed to the Supreme Court, where that issue is pending.

But as part of the case, the plaintiffs in 2022 also sought depositions from six current and former lawmakers and five current and former staff members. The Legislature fought the depositions, but Circuit Judge J. Lee Marsh in October 2022 said he would allow the lawmakers and staff members to be questioned, with some limits.

Marsh cited the 2013 Supreme Court precedent.

“The appropriate line in this case is where the doors to the House and Senate meet the outside world,” Marsh wrote. “Accordingly, each legislator and legislative staff member may be questioned regarding any matter already part of the public record and information received from anyone not elected to the Legislature, their direct staff members or the staff of the legislative bodies themselves. They may not be questioned as to information internal to each legislative body that is not already public record (e.g., their thoughts or opinions or those of other legislators.)”

In addition to arguing that the appeal of Marsh’s ruling is moot, lawyers for the voting-rights groups also wrote in Friday’s brief that there is “no absolute legislative privilege in Florida.”

But in the March brief, attorneys for the House and the Senate wrote that historically, “the legislative privilege safeguarded the integrity and independence of the legislative process and assured that fear of personal repercussions would not sway the votes of lawmakers or chill the freedom of speech and action in legislative deliberations.”

The current and former lawmakers involved in the dispute are former House Speaker Chris Sprowls, R-Palm Harbor; former Sen. Ray Rodrigues, R-Estero; former Sen. Aaron Bean, R-Fernandina Beach; Sen. Jennifer Bradley, R-Fleming Island; Rep. Tom Leek, R-Ormond Beach; and Rep. Tyler Sirois, R-Merritt Island. Each had a leadership role in the 2022 redistricting process.