The Southwest Classic as we know it — the annual Arkansas vs Texas A&M game played at AT&T Stadium — will finally die after this season’s edition.
Both sides are in agreement that the Razorbacks and Aggies should play each other in a traditional home-and-home matter, rotating between their recently renovated stadiums in Fayetteville and College Station, respectively.
A national audience will get to see the finale in a premier time slot on a major network (2:30 p.m. CT, ESPN), with No. 24 Texas A&M a slight favorite over an Arkansas team that received votes in this week’s AP Poll.
It will be the 13th time in 16 seasons the matchup will be held at the home of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys, which is affectionately nicknamed JerryWorld for owner — and Arkansas grad — Jerry Jones.
What began as a non-conference series pitting the SEC against the Big 12 while also reviving an old Southwest Conference rivalry evolved into an SEC West showdown when the Aggies joined the league in 2012.
Why the Southwest Classic is Ending
With the SEC expanding to 16 teams this year by adding Oklahoma and Texas, divisions no longer exist. Whether or not the league eventually goes to a nine-game conference slate, Arkansas and Texas A&M won’t meet on an annual basis.
The Razorbacks’ permanent opponent in an eight-game slate is Missouri. Texas and Ole Miss are believed to be their other two permanent opponents in the event the SEC goes to nine games.
Beyond that, though, both sides have publicly expressed their desire not to lose an SEC home game every other year, which is what happens when they always play in Arlington, Texas.
They’d rather play the games on campus — and understandably so. Within the past decade, Arkansas completed a $160 million project at Razorback Stadium that built the north end zone and Texas A&M spent $485 million on a “redevelopment” project that expanded seating capacity at Kyle Field beyond 100,000.
A lot of money is made from home football games, especially SEC games that draw larger crowds, and that’s more important than ever with revenue sharing – where the schools pay athletes directly – just around the corner.
That doesn’t even get into the recruiting side of things, as the coaching staffs lose an extra date to host prospects on campus in what would certainly be a great environment.
Those same reasons are also used in the “Great Stadium Debate” within the state, with calls to end games at War Memorial Stadium growing louder each year. The last Little Rock game currently on the books is next year’s historic matchup with Arkansas State.
The Future of Arkansas Football Outside of Fayetteville
What seems to be certain is that neither AT&T Stadium in Arlington nor War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock will host the Razorbacks on an annual basis. That’s already the case for the latter of those venues, as Arkansas didn’t play in the capital city in 2020 or 2022.
However, a case could be made for playing in both locations much less frequently.
The historical significance of War Memorial Stadium and how it helped passion for Arkansas football grow from the Ozarks to the delta shouldn’t be ignored. For some families outside of Northwest Arkansas, it’s their only opportunity to see the Razorbacks in person.
That helps foster a statewide love for the program, which is needed because Arkansas is barely ahead of Mississippi as the second-least populated state in the SEC’s footprint. In today’s NIL world, that is very important.
Playing the likes of Alcorn State, Florida A&M, Western Carolina and UAPB at War Memorial Stadium is pointless, though. Those are better off in Fayetteville where the UA can at least include them in the season ticket package and get a better student turnout.
On the flip side, Arkansas will never play another SEC team or Power Four opponent down there, either. Why would it? Even a sellout in Little Rock would mean 20,000 fewer tickets sold than those games in Fayetteville.
The perfect compromise is the game that’s finally happening in 2025. Arkansas vs Arkansas State has the potential to generate some excitement that no other non-conference game against a non-Power Four team could, plus the Razorbacks are paying the Red Wolves only $900,000 — significantly less than the $1.6 million they pay similar opponents.
Even at that discounted rate, though, the UA would still be losing money compared to a game played in Fayetteville. On top of that, the excitement would almost certainly wear off if the matchup happened every year.
As for games at AT&T Stadium, it’s fair to assume Jerry Jones would love to find a way for his alma mater to continue playing in the state-of-the-art venue he built. But again, it probably shouldn’t be an annual thing, even if it’s a non-conference game.
Not only would Arkansas be losing out on another home date, but playing there would lose its luster. Just look at the current series. The first six Arkansas vs Texas A&M games in Arlington each drew crowds of 65,000-plus and had an average attendance of 68,423, while none of the last six have eclipsed 65,000 and averaged just 58,750 fans.
As for the Razorbacks’ opponents in potential future games at AT&T Stadium, they could continue calling it the Southwest Classic and rotate through their former SWC foes currently in other Power Four conferences: Baylor, Houston, TCU and Texas Tech in the Big 12 and SMU in the ACC. (Sorry, Rice.)
Perhaps the UA could mimic the Olympics by playing at both venues every four years, with those games being offset where there’s one at either location every other year — much like the Summer and Winter Olympics.
While folks may not tune in to watch swimming or curling on a regular basis, they’ll gladly tune in for those events when the Olympics come around.
Even that may be too frequent for the UA to stomach the lost revenue of a home game, though.
***
See our latest column on Arkansas vs Texas A&M here:
***
More coverage of Arkansas football and Arkansas vs Texas A&M from BoAS…
