By Harry King
LITTLE ROCK — The Southeastern Conference’s decision to drop the second game of many cross-division series to accommodate Texas A&M and Missouri was mutually beneficial to Arkansas and Tennessee.
To make room for A&M in the West and Missouri in the East, the SEC lopped off the back end of a two-game series for 10 teams in the league. Only Georgia and Ole Miss will complete the rotation that began in 2011.
No two teams benefited more than the Razorbacks and the Vols.
Arkansas shed a road game to Knoxville to make room for A&M. Tennessee was not very good this year, but the Vols’ fans expect much better in the fall with the return of Tyler Bray. The quarterback sat out five straight games, including a 42-point loss to Arkansas, with a thumb injury.
On the other side, if the Vols are going to be the team that makes a run at Georgia, their task is easier with the Razorbacks off the schedule.
Released shortly after Christmas, the 2012 SEC schedule is only a one-year bridge.
Before expansion, each of the 12 teams had two rotating opponents from the opposite division. In 2011, for example, Vanderbilt completed its series with Arkansas and Tennessee began its two games with the Razorbacks by playing in Fayetteville.
At this point, most everything is up in the air for 2013 and beyond, including whether Arkansas and Kentucky will complete their two-game series and whether the SEC is going to stick with permanent rivals from the other division.
Charles Bloom, the SEC’s associate commissioner, recently told the Austin American-Statesman that there might not be permanent rivals, but that the league is committed to an eight-game conference schedule.
The only permanent rivalries with years of animosity are Alabama-Tennessee and Georgia-Auburn and maybe there is a way to retain only those two games.
For the other 10 teams, two rotating opponents is preferable. For Arkansas, that would mean getting rid of South Carolina, a team that most Razorback fans look at as simply another SEC opponent. Not only that, but if all 14 teams have only one rotating opponent, schools will only visit each other every 12 years and that would be a shame. Currently, a school plays every conference member four times during a 10-year period.
The immediate task for Arkansas is finalizing the 2012 schedule.
Nothing is official, but instead of continuing the series with Arkansas in Cowboys Stadium, the Aggies understandably prefer a home and home now that they are in the SEC. In addition, the Aggies play SMU in Dallas next year and the money from the game in Arlington was not what it was cracked up to be, according to the newspaper in Bryan, Texas.
Arkansas will be hard-pressed to get another marquee non-conference opponent to play in Arlington next year and a second-tier team will not sell tickets. More than likely, Arkansas will not play in Arlington this fall.
Arkansas must schedule a game for either Sept. 22 or Oct. 20 and Bart Pohlman, crack researcher for radio host Bo Mattingly, came up with several schools that have both those dates open. The list includes Kansas State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, Boston College, Duke, Georgia Tech, Maryland, North Carolina State, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, Pitt and Rutgers.
Cincinnati, UConn, Louisville, Syracuse and South Florida have one of the two dates open.
It is doubtful any of the Big 12 schools would play in Fayetteville without a return game.
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Harry King is sports columnist for Stephens Media’s Arkansas News Bureau. His e-mail address is hking@arkansasnews.com.
