Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

It’s not going away.

In fact, the question seems to be popping up more frequently and in places you might not expect.

You know the one: Will Arkansas ever play Arkansas State in football?

Fans from both programs — especially Red Wolves’ supporters wondering why the Razorbacks continue to avoid ASU, but seek out other Sun Belt schools for games — have been discussing the hypothetical matchup for years.

Usually it comes up in the offseason when folks are killing time waiting on football season to start. There might be no better way to drum up talk radio calls in the offseason than to bring up the Arkansas State-Arkansas game debate.

Sometimes the question pops up near the end of the basketball regular season if it looks like the programs could conceivably meet up for a rematch of their 1987 NIT game. Even a WNIT meeting between the Razorbacks and Red Wolves was enough to spark the conversation in March 2005.

By now we’re all used to the topic.

Except hearing it come up Wednesday at the Northwest Arkansas Touchdown Club was a bit of a surprise.

Arkansas Athletic Director Jeff Long was taking fan questions from the podium and the topics dealt almost entirely with the state of Arkansas’ football program and how the search for a new football coach is going. In between offering answers about his preference of an offensive or defensive minded coach (didn’t say) and whether he’d be interested in college coordinators as candidates (he would), Long was asked about the policy of not playing Arkansas State.

Here’s the exchange, including the question asked by a guy wearing a Razorback cap and standing in the very back of the banquet room where the luncheon was held:

“I’m just curious, you think there’s any chance of us playing Arkansas State in the near future?”

Long’s response:

“No. We have not changed our position on playing Arkansas State. We remain with the policy, the long-standing policy, so no I don't see a game with Arkansas State in the not too distant future, I don't.”