This week, former Oklahoma football coach Bob Stoops resurfaced an old debate: Should the Arkansas Razorbacks join the Big 12? Would they be better off if they did?
Bob Stoops is the latest to argue for Arkansas to the Big 12, which ain’t happening
It’s a geographic fit, but it doesn’t make sense for Arkansas.
Brett Rojo-USA TODAY Sports
That conversation’s been going on for decades, including recently with comments by Barry Switzer, Houston Nutt, and others, all rooted in realignment history.
The Big 12’s mid-’90s founding included Southwest Conference schools Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor, and Texas Tech, but not the SWC’s Arkansas, which had jumped to the SEC a few years earlier. Legendary Hogs coach Frank Broyles once said the eventual Big 12 wouldn’t have added Arkansas, so the school had to find its long-term home in the SEC.
It’s a purely hypothetical thing, because the Big 12 hasn’t suggested it wants Arkansas and Arkansas hasn’t suggested it wants anything other than the SEC.
But Stoops thinks an Arkansas-to-Big 12 move would help both parties:
“I just feel personally that they would be excellent in the Big 12,” Stoops said Wednesday on Sports Talk. “Geographically, where they’re located — can you imagine the series with Oklahoma and Oklahoma State every year? Also, Texas, TCU, all the teams there in the (Texas) area.”
There’s a recruiting angle to the idea:
“I think it would bring Texas recruiting, being that they would be down there competing in the Texas area, even in Oklahoma,” Stoops said. “They’d be more attractive in recruiting, just because of where they’re playing their football games.”
Stoops admits he doesn’t know the business side of such a move, but said he thinks it’d be good for both parties.
“I just think they’d have an opportunity to really make a mark in the Big 12,” he said. “I think it’d be good for the Big 12, but I also think it’d be good for Arkansas overall, when you talk about the landscape of things and their opportunities here.”
The way Stoops puts it, all of that sounds good.
Arkansas was the westernmost school in the SEC until Texas A&M joined from the Big 12 in 2012. It’s a solid five-hour drive from even the closest SEC schools. It might be fun for Arkansas to have an annual game against all those non-A&M Texas schools. I mean, isn’t it fun when Arkansas and A&M play every year at AT&T Stadium?
Arkansas is almost totally devoid of blue-chip recruits, and playing more in Texas would surely help accumulate talent.
But Arkansas, for two big reasons, would be silly to move.
The first reason: money
The SEC’s annual payouts to member schools have climbed over $40 million. That puts the conference in a class with the Big Ten, whose payouts are shooting toward $50 million.
The Big 12 is not poor, but it’s not that rich. It currently offers $35 million payouts.
The second reason: stability
The Big 12’s grant of media rights expires on June 30, 2025. If any school leaves the Big 12 before that date, the Big 12 gets to keep its TV broadcasting rights and make all the money off them. That’s a huge revenue source.
The existence of the GOR is the single biggest thing preventing Big 12 teams from getting poached by other conferences. Conference commissioner Bob Bowlsby’s contract expires exactly when the GOR does. The Big 12’s very existence is not a sure thing beyond June 2025.
Nothing about a Big 12 move would be a sure thing for Arkansas.
What Arkansas would gain in increased exposure in Texas, it would lose in exposure in Southeastern states like Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana. The Big 12 is currently the worst recruiting league in the Power 5. No states in its footprint except for Texas have that much talent, and there are lots of college programs in Texas. Arkansas wouldn’t necessarily upgrade.
Arkansas would get away from Alabama, which in theory would make winning a conference a lot easier. But it’d still have to contend with stronger programs in Oklahoma and Texas, plus programs that have been a lot better lately like TCU, Oklahoma State, and West Virginia.
Arkansas could compete in the Big 12, just like it did in the old SWC that it won or tied atop 11 times after 1950. But it could also keep struggling.
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