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Yurachek should move Bud Walton improvements to front

It is past time for some upgrades to Bud Walton Arena and it shouldn’t take three to five years to make some obvious improvements.

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Hunter Yurachek said Thursday at the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce that improvements to Bud Walton Arena were not going to happen immediately.

It probably should, though, because basketball is a sport Arkansas could be competing regularly for SEC and national championships along with baseball and some other spring sports.

Football is probably going to be stuck around 6-7 wins a year on a consistent basis, which is what the Razorbacks are. Sorry, fans, but you are what your record says you are.

The Hogs have won a national championship in men’s basketball. They’ve never won a football title. Don’t throw 1964 out there because that’s something that was a five-man committee of football writers the morning after officials didn’t think Joe Namath was in the end zone in the Orange Bowl against Texas.

Even that little committee was not unanimous choosing the Hogs.

The official ones were handed out before the bowl games were even played. Whether it is right or wrong doesn’t matter because it didn’t happen that way. Central Florida claims the 2017 title using an argument about as flimsy. Claiming a football title for the Hogs in 1964 is creating a myth to what was a mythical official championship.

But Arkansas won the 1994 national title in basketball with no disputes.

That also was the first year of operation for Bud Walton Arena and it has become seriously out-dated. The contrast is not as stark as when they moved out of Barnhill Arena, but there are fan-based things they are seriously behind a lot of other schools with for a home arena.

Yurachek said Thursday it may be three to five years before anything happens at Bud Walton. That’s probably accurate.

Most of it will be politics and that involves forming committees and paying for intensive studies to find out what is pretty obvious if you’ve been to some other arenas built in the last few years.

In basketball this past season, the Hogs finished the year going deeper into the NCAA Tournament than any other SEC team, playing in the Elite Eight.

Football’s best season in the last 40-plus years was a fifth-place national finish after the 2011 season … which was third among SEC West teams behind Alabama and LSU.

That’s probably not going to change.

Basketball has made giant leaps in both men’s and women’s areas and the total number of fans in attendance for the season is going to be higher than a football season.

Playing for championships should get a home fit for champions.

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2024 High School Rankings

Following is the Arkansas Sports Media High School Football Poll including the Overall Top 10, the top five in Classes 7A, 6A, 5A, 4A, 3A and 2A, plus the top three in the 8-man division, as voted by a panel of sports media from around the state for the week ending August 24. Ranking is given with first-place votes received, records, total points and ranking from last week's poll:
OVERALLRecordPtsPrv
1.Bryant (18)8-02521
2.Conway (6)8-02302
3.Greenwood (2)8-02103
4.Little Rock Parkview7-11714
5.Bentonville5-31416
6.Benton7-11265
7.Fayetteville6-21008
8.Pulaski Academy6-2757
9.Rogers5-3459
10.Shiloh Christian6-24010
Others receiving votes: Marion 13, Valley View 9, Joe T Robinson 8, Mountain Home 4, Cabot 3, Elkins 3.
CLASS 7A
1.Bryant (20)8-01241
2.Conway (6)8-01052
3.Bentonville5-3753
4.Fayetteville6-2455
5.Pulaski Academy6-2354
Others receiving votes: Rogers 5.
CLASS 6A
1.Greenwood (26)8-01301
2.Benton7-11022
3.Shiloh Christian6-2713
4.Marion7-1524
5.Mountain Home7-131
Others receiving votes: Little Rock Catholic 4.
CLASS 5A
1.Little Rock Parkview (23)7-11271
2.Joe T Robinson7-1902
3.Valley View (3)8-0803
4.Hot Springs Lakeside7-1484
5.Farmington7-130
Others receiving votes: Camden Fairview 4, Maumelle 4, Morrilton 3, Greenbrier 2, Harding Academy 1.
CLASS 4A
1.Elkins (19)8-01161
2.Arkadelphia (5)6-2792
3.Little Rock Mills (1)8-0703
4.Warren6-2404
5.Malvern (1)8-0315
Others receiving votes: Dardanelle 22, Southside Batesville 11, Mena 8, Bauxite 7, DeWitt 4, Highland 2.
CLASS 3A
4.Bismarck (15)8-01054
5.Fordyce (4)8-0765
Prescott (3)7-1531t
1.Osceola (2)6-149
3.Mayflower (1)8-036
Others receiving votes: Booneville (1) 31, Rivercrest 19, Mansfield 14, Charleston 4, Rison 3.
CLASS 2A
1.Carlisle (21)8-01211
2.Conway Christian (4)8-01042
3.Des Arc7-1663
4.Bigelow (1)6-2455
5.Murfreesboro6-230
Others receiving votes: Marked Tree 10, Mineral Springs 6, Junction City 5, Cross County 1, Mount Ida 1, Poyen 1
8-MAN SANCTIONED
1.Strong-Huttig (25)5-0761
2.Midland (1)7-0502
3.Cedar Ridge7-1253
Others receiving votes: Rector 5.

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ESPN ARKANSAS 99.5 IN FAYETTEVILLE, 95.3 IN THE RIVER VALLEY, 96.3 IN HOT SPRINGS, 104.3 IN HARRISON-MOUNTAIN HOME.