re: Question for Arkansas older fanbase.

That was me posting about my intro to the SEC via the Georiga band and majorettes at the Independence Bowl Dec 1991.

From a fan standpoint, the biggest difference probably has been small things like not having games that are close by. In reality, Austin is as far away from Fayetteville as Tuscaloosa, but SMU games were relatively close. I think for me, living in western Arkansas, Texas is just a lot more familiar to me than anything east of the Mississippi, so traveling to Texas is more natural.

That wouldn't be the case for people living east of Little Rock.

SEC teams never, ever send their marching bands to Fayetteville. I've never seen it once. But I do remember seeing the Texas A&M band, the Texas Band and all of the former SWC bands in Fayetteville back in the day.

I remember thinking that the fanfare cheers and songs the bands played in the SEC "sound really southern", like LSU's, Bama's, etc. Georgia's band sounded "southern" to me. The Texas stuff just sounds western and cowboy. That was a change, and thats the kind of stuff I guess a kid remembers.

Our first ever game as an SEC team was a loss to the fricking Citadel, so we sucked during that time period, and not just because of better competition.

I think you can look at a lot of our traditions and songs, etc and see a similarity with the old SWC. I think our fight song and fanfares, marches, etc sound similar to Texas and the Texas teams, because that was the culture our teams and bands "grew-up" in. There is a similarity between the "cult-ish" all out, WOOOOOOOOOO pig sooie and the A&M stuff.

We would never do a "Its Great...to be...an Arkansas Razorback" cheer, for example.

You don't know what you're talking about.

It was never "either the Texas schools, or Arkansas"

The SEC informally invited 5 teams at least. The first four were Arkansas, Texas, Texas A&M and FSU. At the time expansion was announced, the SEC was to be a 12 or 14 team league.

Articles from that time posted say the league might have gone to as big as 16.

Arkansas had a love hate relationship with Texas and the conference.

Remember Arkansas was the ONLY school not in Texas so generally, a lot of decisions were 8-1, yet, Arkansas was undoubtedly the second most powerful school in the conference as well. So, on lots of things, Arkansas and UT cooperated on. Broyles and Darrel Royal were best friends so there was always lots of back channel talk between UA and UT.

It was a strange situation. Undoubtedly, Arkansas was one of the power brokers in conference. Second only to Texas and much more so than Texas A&M, yet there were lots of piddly little things that went against Arkansas. For instance, while every single game in the conference involved a Texas school and thus, officials were always going to be from Texas, no official who lived in the state of Arkansas could officiate an Arkansas game.

With regard to the back channel talk with Royal and Broyles, Broyles was the point man for the movement to the SEC and had the contact with the SEC. The plan was for Texas and Texas A&M to follow Arkansas. Arkansas was supposed to blaze the trail and once it was evident that the league could not survive without Arkansas, Texas and Texas A&M were going to use Arkansas as cover to make the move as well. Thing is, on the way to the SEC, the Texas legislature got involved and put the screws to Texas and Texas A&M.

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In spite of sucking in 1992, we managed to beat Tennessee and LSU.

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LSU was 2-9 in 1992

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Its one reason I hate to see it all go away for a 13-team league, regardless of who is entering the league. I like what we have and don't think they should mess with it.

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I really am not sold on expansion either - most of all because of what it will probably do to scheduling

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LSU was 2-9 in 1992

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...which only strengthens the argument that Curley Hallman was truly awful. Had Jack Crowe survived that season, we could have perhaps witnessed a great showdown between the two.

the dumb asses didn't understand y'all leaving would kill the swc, esp after they were exposed as a band of cheats. and it seems the big 12 dumb asses still havn't figured out that theirs is not a successful conference model. instead of healthy introspection resulting in improvements, they just brag about their superiority as colorado, nebraska and now texas a&m and possibly ou leave them to their self gratification rituals.

This blog post from an OKC writer makes a good case of why Arkansas did push things to where they are today. It isn't really so much a matter of vision, as just geographic reality.

Arkansas is the only school that would have been as at home in the Big 12 as in the SEC. We straddle the Southeast and Southwest. Eastern Arkansas is all southern, while western and northwestern Arkansas have a lot in common with Texas and Oklahoma.

This guy gets it right in that when Arkansas left for the SEC, the plains states were weakened in their attempts at having a viable conference, simply because there aren't very many big programs to choose from in the middle part of the country. They couldn't afford to lose even one, and they did.

Why Middle America Might Be Without A League

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To me, the Big 12's slow — yes, it’s been slow — descent began before the Big 12 was ever born: in 1990, when Arkansas left the Southwest Conference for the SEC. Some have said the Hogs hastened the demise of the SWC, which was no doubt true. But when the Razorbacks went south and east, instead of west, it was the first sign that Middle America was vulnerable.

I blame Big Eight leaders for letting the Hogs get away. Twenty years ago, the SEC was not the premier conference it is today. It was a good conference. An excellent conference. But no more esteemed than the Big Ten or Big Eight or Pac-10. The SEC certainly hadn’t begun reaping the big television bonanzas that were to come.

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I understand Berry's point but geographically, Arkansas fits in either conference and the SEC was more proactive in expanding at the time. Even had Arkansas joined the Big 12, I don't think it would have changed what's happening with the Big 12 today. I don't blame UTexas exclusively for the problems they're having now but they are the infidels in the equation, IMO.

Arkansas never was going to the Big8 for a few reasons. The rest I can agree with the article.

As Frank Broyles has outlined multiple times that Arkansas largest population resides in Central Arkansas which is much closer to SEC country than anywhere else. It's the whole reason he didn't want to play Arkansas State to build the ENTIRE state as Razorback fans. Thank the good lord that paid off today.

It's not our fault the North won the Civil War and had political influence putting "The University of Arkansas" the farthest from the entire population of the state at that time in 1865 when deciding to get university. Hell the North Tower on Old Main is taller than the South Tower, yeah.. I wonder why that is.. Oh, that's right to stick it to the south after a awful WAR that killed thousands only 5 years before.

Not to mention Fayetteville was burned to the ground and had to start over.

Back to football..

The talent pool was always southwest, south and east of Arkansas. There is a reason Frank Broyles stated Arkansas athletics in all sports will increase by 15% if a Texas based team (TAMU) enters the SEC.

Check our records the longest history of any Big8 team we've played is Missouri, a horrible 5 games in over 100 years.. yes, really, only 5 games and only 12 with Oklahoma since 1894.

Frank was brilliant. He grabbed the entire state and didn't allow Arkansas State to become the school, even thought it practically sits in the Memphis Area, and kept us where the talent pool of larger population bases are.

Arkansas sits right in the Middle South/South East just like Louisiana and the deal is far better in the Southeast than Southwest.

If you had.. Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, LSU, TAMU and Arkansas that could easily be the #1 conference. However, it never happened and doesn't matter.

LSU like Arkansas is much better off in the Southeast.