FAYETTEVILLE -- The SEC elected to keep its eight-game football scheduling format in place for 2025 and will simply flip the home and away games from the 2024 slate, the league announced Wednesday.
Thus, the Arkansas Razorbacks know they will host Auburn, Mississippi State, Missouri and Texas A&M and travel to LSU, Ole Miss, Tennessee and Texas in conference play in 2025.
The 2025 schedule format was approved by a vote of the SEC presidents and chancellors last week following a recommendation by the league's athletic directors. The dates for conference games will be released at a later date.
The Razorbacks already had existing contracts for their four nonconference games in 2025, and that slate will feature some firsts for the Razorbacks, including a home game against Notre Dame on Sept. 27 in the first meeting between the programs.
Additionally, Arkansas will face Arkansas State for the first time at Little Rock's War Memorial Stadium on Sept. 6, the week after their Aug. 30 season-opener on campus against Missouri State.
The Razorbacks have an open date on Sept. 13, which could be left in place as one of two open dates that season or could be slotted as their conference opener. LSU and Tennessee are the only Arkansas opponents with matching open dates on Sept. 13, so if either of those teams are paired against the Razorbacks on that date it will be a conference road opener for the Hogs.
LSU has the Sept. 13 date available between home games against Louisiana Tech and Western Kentucky, while Tennessee is open between home games against East Tennessee State and Alabama-Birmingham.
The SEC has taken some heat for remaining with an eight-game conference format when other conferences have turned to nine-game conference slates in recent years. The SEC has required league teams to play one nonconference game against a Power 5 team or a major independent. That mandate will stay in place through the 2024-25 cycle, when the SEC eliminates division play for the first time since Arkansas and South Carolina joined in 1992.
"We continue to monitor changes across college sports as they relate to future scheduling," SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said in a statement. "Continuing with our current format for the 2025 season provides additional time to understand the impact of the changes happening around us as we determine the appropriate long-term plan for SEC football scheduling."
The College Football Playoff is expanding to 12 teams for the 2024 season and there is already discussion of the potential of a 14-team playoff as early as 2026.
The Razorbacks are scheduled to play one nonconference game away from home in 2025, at Memphis on Sept. 20, in a meeting that is part of a two-for-one deal, with the Tigers scheduled to play at Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville on Sept 19, 2026, and Sept. 9, 2028.
Additionally, since the Razorbacks' contract with Texas A&M and AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, is expiring after the game on Sept. 28, 2024, Arkansas will host the Aggies for the first time since 2013 during the 2025 season. All but three games between the Razorbacks and Aggies have been played in Arlington since 2009, the home-and-home setup in 2012-13 when Texas A&M joined the conference and in 2020 at College Station, Texas, due to the covid-19 pandemic.
The Razorbacks will face Tennessee on the road in 2025 for the first time since Arkansas pulled off a 28-24 win there in 2015, and Arkansas will play Texas on the road in 2025 for the first time since the Longhorns won 52-10 in 2008.
Arkansas 2025 football schedule
Home games
Missouri State (Aug. 30); Arkansas State (Little Rock, Sept. 6);
Notre Dame (Sept. 27); Auburn* (TBD); Mississippi State* (TBD);
Missouri* (TBD); Texas A&M* (TBD)
Road games
Memphis (Sept. 20); LSU* (TBD); Ole Miss* (TBD); Tennessee* (TBD);
Texas* (TBD)
*SEC game