Gov. Sanders demand selfish, will hurt Razorbacks, Red Wolves

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The governor of Arkansas went to a funeral that was a celebration of life and walked away thinking she went to a party.

For those who don't know, Gov. Sarah Huckabee-Sanders went on the air in Little Rock this morning boasting of a letter she sent to legislators demanding they put forth some sort of mandate that will require Arkansas and Arkansas State to play at War Memorial every year. Obviously, the governor's heart is in the right place, but it's a selfish act colored by a misinterpretation of what she just saw.

That stadium wasn't full because everyone wants to see Arkansas and Arkansas State become this huge rivalry. It was full because this was a moment to think back on the days when War Memorial was a functional venue, which it certainly isn't anymore, and able to host big, historic events in Razorback history.
Fans were there to say goodbye.

Making it the ultimate scenario to draw interest and end a decade of not selling out was the stadium was closing with what should be the one and only game between the Hogs and Red Wolves and the rare occasion of great weather at this point in the season in Little Rock. Those elements came together to make it as close to a packed house as it's going to be.

However, run that game next season and it's not going to be packed. If that was a fake goodbye to the stadium, that portion of the fans are out.

Arkansas fans aren't going to have much interest in it because they have now seen the Razorbacks play Arkansas State and it wasn't much more intriguing than playing Arkansas-Pine Bluff.

Also, the luck with the weather isn't likely to hold up. Fans will find themselves trapped in a concrete oven with no place to hide hoping and praying once again that there's cold water somewhere or hiding under leaky bleachers surrounded by metal in a lightning storm.

For those with children, that's a dangerous risk. No one wants to end up stuck with an overheated child and no way to safely cool them down and rehydrate them without leaving the stadium and parents have no reason to trust that will be the case.

By making this declaration, Gov. Sanders is coming out against the Arkansas football program. At a time where key personnell are having to be let go to have the budget to meet revenue share payments, she is asking Razorbacks athletics director Hunter Yurachek to give up millions of dollars in revenue to come play a game people are going to want to see less and less each season in a stadium not fit for hosting games.

It was a white knuckle ride Saturday. We intentionally don't require a reporter to go to War Memorial anymore because we no longer feel OK telling one of our writers he has to go potentially face a lack of air conditioning on extreme weather days, possibly have no access to water or toilets, and almost be guaranteed he isn't going to be able to file a story from the press box, nor follow along with the resources he is used to having electronically because the odds of the internet working is almost zero.

Fortunately, Josh Davis, who happens to handle the central Arkansas area reporting for us volunteered as tribute, but, if he hadn't, there wouldn't have been anyone in person, and it's something we stand by for the good of our writers and their personal well-being.

As expected, the television feed went down multiple times. Internet was out in the press box almost immediately.

It was a miracle ESPN got the game on the air at all, which is why this game will never be on actual television. Gov. Sanders is not only saying head coach Sam Pittman should give up money and a weekend of valuable recruiting visits, but that he should hamstring himself even more by most likely not being seen by recruits at all while buried deep on ESPN+ if he's lucky.

The interview with Pittman on the postgame show couldn't take place because of technical problems with the stadium, and poor Butch Jones got drug out to the sideline in a half-lit stadium to do his postgame interview for the Red Wolves.

Just feet away, a group of boys jovially played football on the stadium turf. A nice scene to behold if not needing to hear questions and answers over the yelling.

It even sounded like construction crews were already dismantling the stadium with loud construction equipment and what appeared to be a high school football team came out behind the coach being loud and telling one another to look in the stands for lost money.

It was disrespectful to Jones to have to conduct his required press conference under those conditions. Of course, so is assuming he wants to keep playing this game every year.

He too loses everything Pittman loses. He's playing a Power Four conference team, pretty much a paid loss, without getting to be on television.

He's also playing in Arkansas without being able to use it for recruiting. In fact, being forced to play in Little Rock every year against the Razorbacks becomes an albatross for him in recruiting.

If he's battling with Memphis for a player and they can point to a miserably hot game on an unusually hard turf that's a guaranteed loss every year without getting to go to a cool venue like they have in Oklahoma or at Ohio State, it hurts Arkansas State. While those types of games are also losses, at least they help in recruiting as once-in-a-lifetime experiences for players who wouldn't normally get to go see those places.

It's highly unlikely Gov. Sanders asked anyone associated with the Red Wolves staff after a day or two to reflect back on the experience what they honestly think about playing this game every year in Little Rock. Had that happened, it's hard to imagine it being anything other than a hard no.

This shouldn't be on the table. It should have been left as the as close to perfect ending for War Memorial Stadium as possible that it was.

It's bad for Arkansas State and it's going to create unneeded tension between Central Arkansas, the state government and the Arkansas Razorbacks. They're going to resent being put into such a bad spot when they were finally done with being held back by the contract.

Arkansas already faces an uphill battle in competing against fellow SEC schools. This is just going to make it harder when the Razorbacks were finally about to be shed of all the shackles holding them back.

They're going to have to continue to beg donors for lost revenue and continue to miss out on a prime recruiting weekend to play in a stadium not fit for college football, which is going to make members of the athletics department and football program unnecessarily bitter toward Central Arkansas and the state government.

It's a bad move politically to hurt these two football programs because of misconception of what happened Saturday. That was a goodbye, and it should remain so.

If it doesn't, when these programs face questions as to why they are being held back from their maximum potential, they can easily point to one person — Gov. Sanders.

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