Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

Rutgers isn’t Boise State. Nobody thinks of the Scarlet Knights in the same breath as the Broncos, Southern Cal, West Virginia or any of the other real or imagined scheduling possibilities discussed as Arkansas looked for a 12^th opponent for 2012.

But if you’re among the folks that couldn’t get excited when Arkansas announced a home-and-home with Rutgers last week, how are you feeling now that other 12^th games are getting scheduled?

Texas A&M will face Texas Southern, which wrapped up a 4-7 season with a 42-6 loss against UAPB. Florida State filled a hole with 1-10 Savannah State. These are the options that many athletic directors and coaches are faced with thanks to conference expansion.

Sure, a six- or seven-figure payout solves the problem of finding a winnable game. Otherwise there’s little value to the football program or the university at large.

Big-time college programs are following through with exactly what Arkansas Athletic Director Jeff Long described as the “worst-case scenario” for finding a 12^th game. They’re adding a second Football Championship Subdivision (formerly NCAA I-AA) opponent, something that guarantees a victory, but also a devalued schedule and season ticket package.

Arkansas managed to avoid adding somebody for the sake of adding somebody. Players, coaches and fans should be thankful. Fans no doubt appreciate the break from shelling out hard-earned money to watch another blowout against a Sun Belt/Conference-USA/WAC opponent.

Mostly, local fans seemed fixated on two scheduling stories last week. Moving LSU from War Memorial to Reynolds Razorback Stadium was met with a mix of celebration and disappointment. Switching Texas A&M from a neutral site game in Dallas to College Station, wasn’t as much of a source of debate.

Lost in the conversation over those two changes is how well things worked out for the Razorbacks in completing the 2012 slate. Nearly every goal outlined in scheduling by Long and Coach Bobby Petrino was met.

Getting Rutgers to Fayetteville in 2012 is perhaps most significant because it gets the Razorbacks to Rutgers in 2013. This gets the desired home-and-home, and since the return trip is to a school just a 30-minute train ride from New York City, it also has the potential for further pushing the UA as a national brand.

It was just last year that the university used the video boards in Times Square as part of a marketing campaign for the school. This game figures to further the goal of opening eyes of folks in East Coast markets.

Recent Arkansas signee Vin Ascolese, a New Jersey native, can only push the Razorbacks so far via his Twitter account, you know? (Check his timeline from around signing day if you’re not sure what I’m talking about here.)

Ascolese, the Parade All-American is a good example of what the region produces in terms of talent. Rarely is that area mined by SEC teams.