From the Bench

Moving LSU Game Will Be First Shot in Great Stadium Debate II

Robert Shields

The Middle East had its Arab Spring, the United States had its Occupy movement, and I guess the University of Arkansas athletic department did not want to be left out of the upheaval as rumors have been ripe about the possibility of the LSU game being ripped out of Little Rock and moved to Fayetteville.

You may have missed it, but when the UA released the 2012 football schedule a few weeks ago, it listed “TBA” in the location column for all home games. I can understand time and television coverage being “TBA,” but location? What’s to figure out unless you just want to wait until the donations come in to announce a controversial change that is going to upset half of the state.

It has become tradition that the LSU game after Thanksgiving has been played at War Memorial Stadium when it is Arkansas’ turn to host. Why anyone in the UA athletic department would want to raise the dead specter of the Great Stadium Debate at this point after just launching a new fund-gauging drive is beyond me. If athletic director Jeff Long is paying attention, then he knows that Frank Broyles’ standing in the state never fully recovered from his foray into the initial Great Stadium Debate.

The chant you hear from some is that all other schools play their home games on campus. This, first, is complete nonsense as many teams play home games in other venues outside campus. It is a great way to make more money and increase your programs exposure. Secondly, even if that were true, Arkansas is not like any other program. If it were, it would be playing its in-state rival of ASU.

Moving the LSU game is tantamount firing of the first shot in the Great Stadium Debate II. It can be no other way. Again, why Jeff Long wants to take up the explosive issue is beyond me. No benefits will be worth the cost.

Bobby Petrino -- who gets whatever he wants at the UA, and remember that when a game is moved out -- will start his fifth season without ever losing in Little Rock. Since 1998, the Razorbacks are 29-2 (94 percent) in that stadium and have only lost two SEC games in those 14 years. You won’t find any stadium over the same period that even comes close to matching that record. We are only one year removed from the Hogs beating LSU in Little Rock to earn the Sugar Bowl invitation, if you remember.

Lou Holtz while at South Carolina and Nick Saban while at LSU both lamented how their teams had to play in Little Rock and posed the question why other teams did not ever have to make that journey. It is that kind of home-field advantage that it draws complaints of an unfair advantage from two legends of the coaching world.

Why would Long want to wade into these waters? If the LSU game is moved to Fayetteville next season and the Razorbacks lose that game, woe to the athletic director or whatever his two high-brow titles are. No doubt it will be an important game and to put that in Fayetteville to test those waters when the students are home and others want to stay closer to family is insane.

Since 1969, the venue in Fayetteville has been littered with crucial big-game losses. I will concede that it’s getting better at Razorback Stadium as the football team won its first top 10 matchup since the ‘60s in the stadium against South Carolina this year.

Anyone who thinks this is just about an oblong ball being snapped on ugly artificial turf has not been paying attention or is new to Arkansas. Razorback football, for better or worse, is woven into the fabric of the state like few other places as it enters culture, politics, and even religion.

The Great Stadium Debate is about a lot more than football, and if you don’t get that you’re almost certainly on the side that wants to move all games back to Fayetteville and there is a great probability you were not born here.

The great support the Razorbacks share across the entire state is not by accident, but with purpose that began in 1906 when F.C. Longman brought his Cardinals to Little Rock to play Southeast Missouri State. Arkansas won that game 12-10, one of only two wins the entire season. It most certainly would have been a one-win season had someone not gotten the grand idea to play in Little Rock.

Did you know playing the LSU series in Little Rock actually dates back to 1907? Even back then when the UA was only playing one game a year in Central Arkansas, someone knew that if they wanted to beat LSU they needed to put it in the best place for the entire state to watch.

In 1936, Arkansas won its first Southwest Conference championship, thanks to, you guessed it, a win over Texas in Little Rock.

From those early days, Arkansas had so much success playing one game a year in Little Rock that in 1948 John Barnhill had the bright idea to play at least three games there each season in order to take the program to the next level and garner true statewide support because the program could not thrive on the small following exclusively in northwest Arkansas.

The rest is history. But now thanks to a crowd made up largely of interests who did not grow up with this history, the book is going to be re-written for the next generation.

A large percentage of fans across the state who support the Razorbacks today probably have never stepped foot on the campus. The people of Arkansas have experienced what it is to be a Razorback thanks to games being played in Little Rock. It is crazy to forget that, especially for people like the athletic director and head football coach who do not have a life-long commitment to what they will leave behind.

If you hear one of these new jacks in favor of moving games to Fayetteville start an argument with “If you are a true fan…” stop them right there and slap them. It’s a non sequitor they are trying to trap you with.

You owe the University of Arkansas athletic program nothing as a fan. The UA owes you. And don’t let anyone define how you are supposed to be in order to be a “true” fan. Anything fans bestow upon a program is a luxury, not a right of that program. Never forget that fact. Seems like maybe they have in the Broyles Center.

What’s next, moving a game out of Little Rock to leave historic War Memorial Stadium with only one a year?


Send your argument to move the game to fromthebench@yahoo.com for a free retort.

Robert Shields is the bestselling author of “Scarlet Fever: A Razorback House Divided” and “The Economics of Sex” and has written the weekly “From the Bench” sports column for the last 14 years. His newest novel, “Daphne and The Mysterious Girls Secret Bathroom Society” is part one in the series. The book is available on Kindle, the nook, and Lulu for $4.99. You can find these at fruitbatbooks.com. He is not the mime.

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