Hogs face tough stretch of games

Arkansas plays eight straight games before it gets its only off weekend this season.

Next year, the Razorbacks will play 10 straight after it gets a break.

Arkansas is scheduled to open the season with Florida A&M in Little Rock and follows with a home game against TCU. The Razorbacks are off Sept. 16 and then play 10 straight games, including eight against SEC opponents.

During one stretch between Oct. 7 and Nov. 11, Arkansas is scheduled to play at South Carolina, Alabama, Ole Miss and LSU.

“The way things work out, that issue of who we’re playing and when we’re playing a lot of times is beyond my pay grade,” Arkansas coach Bret Bielema said. “(Athletics director) Jeff (Long) is more than willing to listen and talk to me about where we’re at, but the SEC schedule is kind of determined by some magical computer. I don’t know where it lives. It’s got it’s own little majestic hiding place.

“It definitely is very unique. The one thing we always say as coaches and players is control what you can control.”

The number of off weekends is determined by where Labor Day falls each year. When the holiday falls on Sept. 1 or Sept. 2, it creates an extra weekend between the start of the college football season and the first weekend of December when conference championship games are played.

The SEC fills the schedule by working around existing contracts for nonconference and neutral-site games. Arkansas had five non-negotiable dates, including Sept. 23 against Texas A&M in Arlington, Texas. The Razorbacks and Aggies have an agreement to play their game at AT&T Stadium on the fourth Saturday of September through 2024.

Arkansas will be the designated home game in Arlington next season, meaning the Razorbacks will play only three conference games — against Auburn, Mississippi State and Missouri — at home. Arkansas’ game against Missouri is scheduled for a Saturday, but is likely to be moved to the Friday after Thanksgiving when TV agreements are made beginning next May.

Missouri is the Razorbacks’ permanent opponent from the SEC East. South Carolina will rotate onto the schedule from the opposite division. Arkansas and South Carolina played 22 straight seasons after the teams joined the league in 1992, but haven’t played since the 2013 season.

After next season’s game, the Razorbacks and Gamecocks aren’t scheduled to play again until 2022 in Fayetteville.

Arkansas had nonconference games already scheduled against Florida A&M, TCU, New Mexico State and Coastal Carolina. New Mexico State and Coastal Carolina will be members of the Sun Belt Conference next season, but it will be New Mexico State’s final season in the conference and Coastal Carolina’s first.

New Mexico State and Idaho were voted out of the Sun Belt earlier this year. Idaho plans to drop to the Football Championship Subdivision, but New Mexico State will keep its Football Bowl Subdivision status by becoming an independent.

Coastal Carolina will move to the FBS next season. The Chanticleers are one of two programs — Florida A&M is the other — on Arkansas’ 2017 schedule that are playing in the FCS this season. Many fans complain about FCS games because of the lack of competition.

Some conferences have recommended their teams stop playing such games, but it appears the SEC has no plans to do the same. In addition to Florida A&M, Arkansas has also recently scheduled a game against Missouri State to open the 2021 season.

“Some (other conferences) say that, but then they go ahead and do it, and they call them exemptions,” Bielema said. “But that’s another conversation. I think the part that we have to do, is do our part to get the most competitive schedule we can that fits our framework.”

By playing Florida A&M in Little Rock, the Razorbacks are guaranteed to play an SEC team at War Memorial Stadium in 2018. Arkansas is expected to play Vanderbilt there that year, which is the final of the existing contract between the Razorbacks and the War Memorial Commission.

The contract was signed prior to the 2014 season and calls for Arkansas to play two conference teams and three nonconference games there through 2018. The Razorbacks played Georgia in 2014 and Toledo last year, and are scheduled to play Alcorn State — an FCS opponent — there next week.

An approved $160 million renovation for their on-campus stadium and decline in quality of opponents has many wondering if the Razorbacks will re-sign to play at War Memorial Stadium, where Arkansas has played games since it was built in 1948.

“We are going to have a difficult decision in the future about what to do with War Memorial,” Long recently told the Little Rock Touchdown Club. “We will be playing games at War Memorial until 2018. After that is when we will begin discussions.”

2017 Football Schedule

Sept. 2 - Florida A&M (Little Rock)

Sept. 9 - TCU

Sept. 23 - Texas A&M (Arlington, Texas)

Sept. 30 - New Mexico State

Oct. 7 - at South Carolina

Oct. 14 - at Alabama

Oct. 21 - Auburn

Oct. 28 - at Ole Miss

Nov. 4 - Coastal Carolina

Nov. 11 - at LSU

Nov. 18 - Mississippi State

Known future opponents

2018 - North Texas (Fayetteville)

2019 - Colorado State (Fayetteville)

2021 - Missouri State, Texas (Fayetteville)

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