It started innocently enough.
A summer blog by Barry Trammel, long-time and much-respected columnist for the Daily Oklahoman in Oklahoma City.
Summers for columnists can be dryer than an Arizona drought, and sometimes you write things that you don't really have a lot of passion about.
Barry asked the question, could Arkansas State University beat the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville this season?
He ran through some of the numbers and how ASU is being picked, again, to win the Sun Belt Conference West Division, while Arkansas is being picked to finish the season.
The Hogs' woes of the past two seasons are pretty well known regionally, and Oklahoma is in the same region geographically as Arkansas. Right now they are definitely in different leagues.
Anyway, Barry touched on the fact we'll never know if ASU could beat Arkansas because they don't play. Never have and apparently never will.
Needless to say, the blog got some attention and, as usual in Arkansas, it became a debate about whether the Razorbacks should schedule the Red Wolves.
For 39 years, yours truly has been an advocate of the state's two largest schools opening the season with each other at War Memorial Stadium (more on the Grand Old Lady in the future).
Charge $100 per ticket and it seemed guaranteed that ASU fans would have bought every available ticket.
For 39 years, that hasn't happened and most likely never will, and it seems that A-State doesn't really care any more. It has been building its own reputation on the football field with titles and regular bowl appearances.
It has updated facilities and more are in the process, and the Red Wolves attract good crowds.
No one in Jonesboro is asking for a meeting with UA Athletic Director Hunter Yurachek.
With that in mind, I'm reminded of the Little Rock Touchdown Club meeting when former athletic director Jeff Long spoke. For the most part, he was more aloof and distant than he had been in previous speaking engagements and was rather rude to a couple of people who asked questions.
Understand that LRTDC founder David Bazzel had said there would be questions at the end, but Long was practically filibustering in his talk and the minutes were very short for questions.
The one that struck home was from Ron Davis, a much-respected Little Rock lawyer and proud graduate of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. Davis and is wife Cassandra are regulars at the Monday luncheon, and Bazzel wasted no time on calling on him to ask a question.
Davis was nice, polite and congenial when he said he wasn't asking the UA to play UAPB but to consider not playing teams from the Golden Lions' conference, the SWAC. That was putting almost a million dollars into programs that UAPB competes with.
Basically, Jeff Long said he'd schedule anyone he felt he needed to schedule, regardless of conference. Davis quietly and humbly sat down.
Obviously, someone from ASU could have had the same concern, but what has stayed on this reporter's mind for almost a year now is that UAPB and UA-Fayetteville are in the same system. They are brothers with a father known as the UA board of trustees.
If indeed ASU has lost interest in playing Arkansas, perhaps some thought should be given to playing UAPB. As for now there would be no blogs wondering if the Golden Lions could win, they couldn't. The program has its own issues right now.
It is also hard to argue the UA might consider finding victories somewhere other than the SWAC.
Sports on 07/15/2018