Dealing with it

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Arkansas and Texas A&M will face off today at AT&T Stadium for the fifth time since the renewal of their rivalry in 2009, but a movement appears to be afoot on one side to eventually return the football series to the campuses.

Texas A&M Athletic Director Eric Hyman and Coach Kevin Sumlin dropped loud hints this week that the Aggies might favor returning the game to renovated Kyle Field every other year.

"I'm constantly re-evaluating," Hyman told The Dallas Morning News this week. "Circumstances change two, three, four, five years from now."

Arkansas Athletic Director Jeff Long pointed out the Aggies broke the contract once, when Texas A&M joined the SEC in 2012, and his intention is to see the amended deal through to its conclusion in 2024.

"The contract has been signed twice, once before Texas A&M was in the SEC and then another contract once they were in the SEC," Long said. "I don't know why that contract wouldn't be honored through 2024."

Long said the University of Arkansas looks at the annual game in the Dallas Metroplex through a much wider lens than simply athletics.

"We've made a lot of decisions as a university, in fund-raising, recruiting students, fund-raising for athletics and the university [based on the contract], so yes, that's an important piece of the strategic move we made," he said. "For me it's bigger than just athletic interests. It's a university interest."

Texas A&M was still in the Big 12 Conference and Arkansas was beginning its 18th year in the SEC when the former Southwest Conference rivals initiated the renewal of the series in 2009. The Razorbacks won each of the first three games at what was then Cowboys Stadium, the brand new home of the NFL's Dallas Cowboys, owned by Arkansan Jerry Jones, a member of the Razorbacks' celebrated 1964 national championship team.

Texas A&M officials, wanting to add some splash to their entrance to the SEC in 2012, negotiated their way into a two-year break from the contract with Arkansas and the Aggies to play the game that season at Kyle Field and return the trip to Reynolds Razorback Stadium the following season.

By contract, the SEC commissioner would serve as the mediator between the schools if Texas A&M begins a serious push to relocate the game again. Former SEC commissioner Mike Slive helped resolve the earlier issue, and first-year commissioner Greg Sankey might be called upon to mediate in the coming years.

Texas A&M has already pulled off one power play on the Razorbacks since joining the conference. The Aggies and LSU wrestled the coveted Thanksgiving weekend date away last year from what had been a 22-year run for Arkansas and LSU on that weekend. The Razorbacks started a new season-ending series last year with Missouri, which joined the SEC with Texas A&M in 2012, and named it the Border Line Rivalry.

Playing at AT&T Stadium clearly has more meaning for the Razorbacks, with an alumnus as owner of the Cowboys and the appeal to a large group of Arkansas alumni in central Texas.

"It means a lot I think, especially to our players now," Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema said this week on his radio program. "To hear Jerry Jones speak to our team, to be able to play in that environment, to have so many Arkansas fans living in Texas and being able to travel to a fairly close home game and to have so many players on our roster from Texas and to be able to play in Cowboys Stadium."

Jones charges a $100 rental fee to the designated home team each year. He and his family, who were in Fayetteville last week for the dedication of the Jerry and Gene Jones Family Student-Athlete Success Center, clearly relish having the Razorbacks at AT&T Stadium each year.

"It's a huge deal to build a beautiful stadium and have your own team playing in it, but then to have your alma mater come there and play against a great institution like Texas A&M in a rivalry game makes it big for us, too," said Stephen Jones, the Cowboys' executive vice president and former Arkansas linebacker. "It'll be great to host a bunch of friends from Arkansas coming in for the game.

"We'll be spending some quality time with some good people."

Texas A&M spent $485 million in renovations on Kyle Stadium, with capacity soaring to 102,733 at the Aggies' home facility.

Hyman told The Dallas Morning News that Texas A&M's circumstances have "changed dramatically" as it relates to playing at home as opposed to the neutral site.

"Paramount for me is doing what's right for our supporters," he told the newspaper.

The schools split the profits from tickets, parking and merchandise sales from the game in Arlington, which A&M officials estimated at between $3.2 million and $3.5 million last year. Arkansas, which has a higher price tag for travel to the game because the team takes charter flights rather than busing, estimates its net revenues at about $3 million.

Long pointed out the financial importance of the neutral-site venue.

"Yes, $3 million is the number generally in my mind for what we make down there, and the important thing to remember, and what most people miss, is that it's every year, not every other year," he said. "So if you're playing in a home-and-home, one year you're not getting any revenue."

Sumlin, in his fourth year as Texas A&M's coach, said the venue made perfect sense when the Aggies were still in the Big 12 but not as much now.

"I think the combination of Kyle Field, the fact that we're both not only in the same conference but the same division, it just makes sense [to play the series on campus]," Sumlin said. "I don't think there's any coach that wouldn't like to play home and home. ... I don't want to speak for Bret or for Jeff Long, but for us it just makes sense."

The Razorbacks' presence in Texas carries great value.

"For us in recruiting, I don't care what kind of NFL fan you are, you mention the name Jerry Jones and kids are going to pay attention," Bielema said. "What it [the Jones family] has brought to our university and the Cowboys is pretty special.

"I'm not involved in those decisions, they were made before I got here, but for us personally it couldn't get any better and hopefully it is something that will continue.

"I know it's contracted out for a long, long time so I hope it continues."

Sports on 09/26/2015