To some, the headline above might sound like heresy.
Let’s face it, the Jerry and Gene Jones family has given a lot to the University of Arkansas. No one’s arguing that. Nobody’s arguing playing a game in AT&T Stadium, which come to be known as Jerry’s World, is an important tool in recruiting.
But it may be time to make a non-conference game. It’s no secret that Texas A&M wants out of the deal. They want the series with Arkansas to be a home-and-home series.
Considering the declining attendance, it might be something Jerry’s at least open to discussing now. The attendance for Saturday’s eight meeting in Arlington was 55,383 … or about the equivalent of a Texas Class 5A high school football playoff game.
That may be the biggest problem. Let’s face it, when you turn the lights on you have 30,000 people show up to see what’s going on.
Oh, Jerry can keep the Southwest Classic marketing monitor. Just not have the game against the Aggies every year. As we said, they’re already wanting out of the deal and, from the looks of things, their fans don’t have a great deal more interest in going there than anybody else.
Shoot, the Hogs could probably get 55,000 in that stadium against Baylor, Texas Tech, Houston, TCU or even SMU. Throw Texas and Oklahoma in there on an occasional basis and you get a larger crowd.
In an area growing by leaps and bounds — just over 7.5 million this year — there are more than a couple of Hog fans living there and always has been.
There won’t be any change soon. These things take some time.
But the guess is 55,383 got Jerry’s attention.
A light at end of tunnel?
It was Lou Holtz in 1977 that said the light at the end of the tunnel is sometimes an oncoming train and this week for the Hogs that may, indeed, be the case.
It’s Alabama week and the Hogs’ worst team in years is playing the Crimson Tide’s best in years. Sorry, Nick Saban, but I don’t work for you so I’m not going to make up some negative about the backup long-snapper.
Alabama right now may be the best team in college football history.
ESPN’s Power Index gives Arkansas just a 2.3 percent chance of winning.
My Power Index gives the Hogs just a 1.432 chance of being in the game at the end of the first quarter. Sorry, but the Crimson Tide’s AVERAGE score through five games is 54-13.
That’s actually not a true indicator of how big these blowouts have been for Bama. If the game ended at the end of the third quarter, the average score would have been 51-7. If you just called it off at halftime, the average score would be 39-4.
I can remember teams that strong defensively in college football, but never one as strong on offense and defense.
Big recruiting weekend
From what I’ve heard, there will be an awful lot of Razorback recruits at Saturday’s game and many assume they are there to watch Alabama.
There may be some truth in that, but if you want to play quickly in the SEC, they’ll see there are opportunities all over the field at Arkansas.
How many in attendance could have a shot at starting next year at Alabama?
The guess here is maybe a couple, but that’s a BIG maybe.
They all likely could see the field quickly for the Hogs.
That’s just the way it is right now.
