FAYETTEVILLE - Arkansas released the majority of its 2012 football schedule Wednesday, though the Razorbacks are still searching for one more opponent.
Arkansas is looking for a fourth nonconference opponent to replace Texas A&M, which will move into the Southeastern Conference next year. The SEC also released its 2012 league schedule for football on Wednesday.
As part of the SEC schedule, the Razorbacks will face Alabama (Sept. 15), Kentucky (Oct. 13), Ole Miss (Oct. 27) and LSU (Nov. 24) at home, and Auburn (Oct. 6), South Carolina (Nov. 10) and Mississippi State (Nov. 17) on the road.
Arkansas will face Texas A&M on Sept. 29, though no location was given. The game against the Aggies is expected to be played on the Texas A&M campus in College Station, Texas, despite the fact the two schools have an agreement to meet annually at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas through 2018.
VIDEO: Jeff Long – 2012 Football Schedule
The Razorbacks also released home nonconference dates against Jacksonville State (Sept. 1), Louisiana-Monroe (Sept. 8 ) and Tulsa (Nov. 3).
Jacksonville State, which will serve as Arkansas’ season-opener, is coached by former Arkansas coach Jack Crowe. Crowe was fired one game into the 1992 season after a loss to The Citadel.
No determinations were made as to which games would be played in Fayetteville and Little Rock on Arkansas’ schedule.
Judging from recent schedules, Louisiana-Monroe and LSU are the most-likely teams to face Arkansas in Little Rock. The Razorbacks’ last five home meetings against ULM and last nine home meetings against LSU have been played at War Memorial Stadium.
While not yet released, the game against LSU is expected to be moved to Nov. 23 – the day after Thanksgiving – to accommodate a national TV audience. Despite playing LSU in Little Rock since the mid-1990s, there is a growing belief the contest could be moved to the Razorbacks’ on-campus stadium next season based on its popularity and ticket demand.
Arkansas’ final nonconference game will be played either Sept. 22 or Oct. 20, with the other date serving as an off weekend.
There has been no timetable set for Arkansas’ final schedule to be released. UA athletics director Jeff Long said last week the school has been in talks with more than 30 schools about playing next season, including at least three “big-name” opponents.
The Razorbacks could opt to continue playing in Cowboys Stadium against a new opponent or schedule a marquee home-and-home series, Long said.
Football is the first sport to have its schedule released since the SEC announced it would have 14 teams next season. Texas A&M will compete in the SEC West, while Missouri will compete in the SEC East as part of the expanded league.
As in years past, each team will play every team from within its own division in an eight-game format. The addition of one team to each division forced the subtraction of one game against the opposite division each year, though teams will continue to keep an annual non-divisional opponent.
2012 Arkansas Football Schedule
Sept. 1 – Jacksonville State (Home)
Sept. 8 – Louisiana-Monroe (Home)
Sept. 15 – Alabama (Home)
Sept. 22 – TBD
Sept. 29 – Texas A&M (Away or Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas)
Oct. 6 – Auburn (Away)
Oct. 13 – Kentucky (Home)
Oct. 20 – TBD
Oct. 27 – Ole Miss (Home)
Nov. 3 – Tulsa (Home)
Nov. 10 – South Carolina (Away)
Nov. 17 – Mississippi State (Away)
Nov. 24 – LSU (Home)
You can follow Matt Jones on Twitter @NWAMatt.
Very, very manageable. Getting ‘Bama and LSU at home is ALWAYS a good thing.
From a selfish standpoint, I hate that we lose the return game against Tennessee. They are still a couple years away from being highly competitive so I think it would have been a good year to catch them at Neyland. Plus, the wife and I were planning on going to that game.
Concerning the two “TBD”s that are still out there, PLEASE, PLEASE no more Division II opponents or Sunbelt teams.
That is 13 games. Add in the SEC Championship game and a bowl game and you are looking at a potential 15 game season.
Unless one of the TBD’s is an off week.
It would have been nice to push the Alabama game back into Oct or Nov instead of the first conference game for us. We always seem to need 4 to 5 game before we shake the cobwebs out and start truly competing. Sure would be nice playing a PAC 10 team in Jerry’s World every year early to showcase our talents and put us on the national scene. I think we will match up well against anybody for the next several years and look forward to winning the SEC west, SEC championship, and National Championship in the coming years.
Yes, one of the TBD’s is an off week.
i hope we start playing LSU on the Hill… one game for exhibition purposes is okay in LR but only ONE!
its cute but its hurting over time… hence the reason why Bama went to playing in one spot v. two…. it makes sense
Jack state? that is terrible. lets mix a MAC team in here – Paul Haynes old stomping grounds.
A&M needs to man up and stay in Dallas in perpetuity… they are certainly already apprehensive about SEC. Tulsa is okay match up but we need one more marquee and maybe UAB? Id like to bring Az State or AZ due to our recruiting that region or even a fresno state team, TCU or even okie state.
Take away games from The Rock and you’ll piss off over half of your fan base.
It’ll probably be a PAC-12 team. The Big-12 has some uncertainty with WVU in limbo. The PAC-12 teams have a open slot for non-conference games since they now play an 8-team conference schedule instead of the 9-game schedule they were playing before expansion.
Speaking of the Pac 12. The last several years of Stanford being a top ten team is over. With Harbaugh moving on and Luck going pro I dont see them being that good any more. Harbaugh is one fantastic coach. The present coach is not. Also, this next season’s schedule for the Hogs looks managable as someone just posted above.
What happened to the border war with Missouri that supposedly was going to be Arkansas’s natural SEC east rivalry game? From the east, Kentucky and SC, that ain’t bad. But please step up and get rid of the Jacksonville St and ULM games. BCS schools should only play BCS schools. Come on NCAA step in if your going to use the BCS system then force BCS schools to only play BCS schools. It would mean more revenue for the schools. Instead of Jack. St., imagine OK ST., or instead of ULM, what about UCLA.
How many people really want to buy tickets for a jack state game, whether it is in Little Rock or on the Hill? What network really wants to show that on tv? And come on man, A&M man up and play in Dallas. Honor the contract!
The reason they’re trying to opt out of the contract at Cowboys stadium is that you cannot host recruits at a neutral site conference game, so they want to make it home and home so that both teams can host recruits at this game every year
I thought I was the only Coach on here.
But anyway, Coach … One date will be filled and the other will become our open date.
BCS NC or bust! Chapter 1-Jacksonville State…….gotta start somewhere. WPS. See ya in Miami January 2013.
Nothing wrong with this schedule folks. Two cupcakes is about right. Aggies are wimps. I did not think they would coward down this bad? Long and CBP MUST BE PISSED BECAUSE THEY ARE STILLFIGHTING TO SAVE THE GAME! They want to our hogs desperately and they know their chances are better in College Station. I just got new generator for xmas, if i have to haul the damn thing to that forsaken aggieland, I will, but Santa brought it for me to take to Jerry World!
After about 2 minutes of research I see that TCU already has a full schedule.
Personally, I would like to see Kentucky as our WMS conference game plus either JSU or ULM. My preference as far as another non-conference game is Ariz. or AZ. St. We could play a Big 10(?) team like Indiana or Illinois. Not really that far to travel.
WIN is right. I am a poor public servant that is required to donate $675 and pay $180 surcharge on LR tickets to build the new pressbox. We don’t sit on the 50 yd line, these are end zone seats and only two games. Take away LSU or at least a conference game and the majority of the donations and ticket sales in LR and South Ark will dry up.
To make my day lets make LSU to travel to Fayetteville for once.
I thought ole miss was to play Boise St. this year, but not so.They have Texas on tap instead. Well,Broncos, come on down here or Dallas, we’ll be glad to show you some of this Southern hospitality that was missing in Atlanta last year.
It would seem that Arkansas vs. Missouri would have more interest and appeal than playing South Carolina.
If we can land someone like Nebraska for an ooc game, then we would have no problem landing prime-time tv scheduling. Everybody in the country would be watching a game like that. That could help recruiting in a big way
WPS!!
Missouri and A&M have more appeal to each other given their recent history in the Big 12.
Our schedule is fine. I’m not sure why we need “more cupcakes”. If we concentrate on the big boys on our schedule and win out, we will be in the NC. No questions. Don’t worry about the rest. Winning solves all problems, including recruiting.
Meant to say, “I’m not sure why we need more “big boys and less cupcakes”.
Isn’t it finally time to add Arkansas State to the schedule in one of those early games. Why not keep the money in state?
Arkansas’ anticipated border rivalry with Missouri took a vacation south to Alabama. Alabama blocked Missouri’ entry to the West and now the SEC schedules are twisted to hell so they play each other. Anyone asks the SEC front office about common sense and hypocrisy? Oh well, it’s BAMA!!!!!!!!
Alum in ST LOUIS,i would imagine Gus Malzahn is hopeing to play the Hogs one day, and only one way all of the up above is going to happen,Haynes is going to have to turn that Defense around.
I am from South central Arkansas and I can assure you that moving the LSU game to the Hill will not hurt our fanbase. Its crazy that we have the LSU game in Little Rock. I am middle class and have been to every game in Little Rock for the past 3 years. I hate that one of our biggest games is in Little Rock. In my opinion it makes Arkansas look like small potatoes compared to LSU and Bama. The little Stadium in Little Rock, is what national exposure and recruits get to see. If our Fanbase can’t or chooses not to go to the Fayettville to see one of our biggest games, that will explain to you why we are on a different level than Bama and LSU. We will continue to dream and argue about how good we think we are.
Very well said razorback0402!
If everyone in areas of Arkansas other than NW Ark felt the same way that you did, razorback0402, we would play them all in RRS. Unfortunately, not everyone feels that way and some of those that don’t are very influential people. But your points are all valid and well taken. Lots of schools used to split home games between two cities (Alabama and Ole Miss, to name just two), but, as far as I can tell, we are the only one that still does. Not all change is bad.
I’d love to see us add Nebraska to the mix and keep a series going in Dallas.
With Texas A&M wanting to go to a home and home series schedule for recruiting visits, that would give each team what they need for exposure purposes.
Nebraska recruits a lot of Texas kids, so I could see the allure of attacting recruits to the Big 10 from their point of view.
Both Arkansas and Nebraska have rich traditions and would be an even better marketing tool for both conferences nation wide.
We also currently recruit against Nebraska on a regular basis for top recruits.
I like the national appeal of a Nebraska series better than I do a series with A&M.
So what we’re saying is that Central and South Arkansas fans are so great that they’ll pull their support if the football team starts playing where the effing campus is located like everyone else. That’s weak.
Alum in St.L agreed. If you are going to play ULM and Jack St, why not play Arkansas State or even UCA?
Good call skezell! That’s what those whiners are saying. I say call their bluff. Play all games at the University of Arkansas football stadium. The Little Rock crap should be ended. It’s just another drawback to the coach and recruiting.
Saw where one of the TOP QB in the country signed with LSU,if you wanted to go Pro young man,should have signed with the Best OFFensive coach in the country,Coach Bobby Petrino.
They better land some nice 4 and 5 star kids that can help next year. Especially on D. We are drinking too much of the coolaid if we think that we can match Bama and LSU with their flock of 4 adn 5 star players and we are told that… Arkansas is hot on some unranked JUCO linebacker from Fullerton, CA. This years recruiting class has only a couple of bright spots. Lets hope some of the DE and WR comits turn into an OT and about three LB and a 6’2- 200 lb safety (or two) We have a full tank of 5-11 185 lb DB’s and 220 lb linebackers.
Another thing.. listening to the new DC.. And him touting we are going to have better effort and guys running to the ball and giving 110% effort.. Really? that is what you are bringing to the table.. You were hired to say you can recruit some 4-5 star defenders to come fill the needs the D has this year. And you better have a better scheme or something better than “We are gong to try harder” Old Willy took a tough hit.. in 2 years. loses to 4 teams that at the time were ranked number 3 or higher nationally at the time they played them and then the loss to Ohio St. cheaters who wound up #5 in the country. Basically if the new guy loses to anyone other thant BAMA or LSU.. he is worse than what we had.
Whoo Pig…etc…
SaintHog,you are soooooooo right.
Amen Saint hog,
We have created monster and epectations are NC or bust. Now someone has to feed. It will take sometime for Haynes to adjust defense and appease the non kool aid drinking hog fans. It is time bomb that is ticking till we are eliminated from NC next year. That is why I keep plenty of koolaid and 3d hog rose colored glasses on. Robinson had his share of issues,but he was a good coach. We need the beef and it will only come with some continued success.
This is really attention-grabbing, You are an excessively skilled blogger. I have joined your feed and sit up for in the hunt for more of your fantastic post. Additionally, I’ve shared your web site in my social networks
You actually make it appear so easy with your presentation however I in finding this matter to be really something that I feel I’d never understand It sort of feels too complex and extremely large for me I am looking ahead to your next put up, I’ll attempt to get the cling of it!