The saying goes that all good things must come to an end, but will that phrase soon pertain to the Southwest Classic?
Texas A&M’s series with Arkansas began as a non-conference affair in 2009 at AT&T Stadium via an arrangement between both schools and the Dallas Cowboys. Arlington has hosted the classic every year since (with lone exceptions being 2012 and 2013). The payout for both teams equated to that of a bowl game, hence the motivation for the neutral site.
But as the college football landscape has evolved the schools agreed that they both outgrew the current contract and would not renew it in 2024, thus shifting the series to a home-and-home contest. Now with the announcement that the SEC would be playing an eight-game schedule in 2024 upon the arrival of Texas and Oklahoma, it throws a bit of a wrench into the future of the Southwest Classic.
With the SEC’s shift toward one permanent rival for each team, the odds of the Aggies and Hogs facing off on an annual basis have slimmed. The Aggies’ permanent rival is expected to be LSU.
In comments shared via Matt Jones with Whole Hog Sports, Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurachek added context on the predicament while at the State of Athletics luncheon hosted by the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce:
“If we do play A&M in 2024, what the league has agreed to is that it will be A&M’s home game and that it would be played at AT&T Stadium to fulfill that last year of that contract.”
Most notably, Yuracheck highlighted that if the Hogs and the Aggies do not play in 2024, then their matchup upcoming matchup on September 30 of this year would be the final game of the series played in Arlington.
The Southwest Classic between A&M and Arkansas is just one of the many rivalries that make college football as thrilling of a sport as it is. The Razorbacks won the first three games since the series resumed in 2009. Since then, the Aggies have had Arkansas’ number, having taken 10 of the last 11 matchups.
But much like how this matchup has evolved from a neutral-site out-of-conference contest to a conference rivalry, so have the financial implications.
With college stadiums consistently improving, it begs the question of whether neutral-site games result in lost revenue. This is a discussion found in the NFL as well, where teams sometimes play a “road game” across the pond in London or in Mexico City.
The conclusion of this series being played across the backdrop of AT&T Stadium, and the end of the Southwest Classic’s annual cadence, will be bittersweet of course.
But if it’s a small price to pay to ensure an Aggies-LSU remains intact every year, while giving way to more games being played in front of the 12th man, then the opportunity cost feels minuscule in the grander scheme.
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