News Out of ACC Bigger Concern for Hogs Than Fans Think

SMU is sleeping giant in Dallas that will cause problems for Arkansas recruiting

Author:
Kent Smith
Publish date:
Sep 1, 2023 10:21 AM EDT

In this story:

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The news this morning that the ACC is inviting Stanford, California and SMU is being read nationally as the two Pac-12 schools with SMU as the throw-in, but when it comes to Arkansas and its future success in the SEC, the Mustangs are the biggest name in that list.

There's a lot about SMU people don't understand, so let's examine this through the Razorbacks' lens. The obvious is that Dallas-Fort Worth is a major recruiting area for Arkansas, although SMU hasn't made much of a dent in years past. Even TCU, which played in last year's national championship game and has clearly been the alpha of the three Division I schools in the area, rarely provides a regular challenge when crossing paths with Arkansas.

However, with the move to the ACC, the Mustangs are in line to be a much bigger threat than the Horned Frogs on the recruiting trail. For those who have ironically had their noses up to SMU over the years, this move is being made in a much different college sports world. You see, even Texas and Texas A&M are a little uneasy about the move this morning. That's because not only do the Mustangs have more money within a three-mile radius of the university than the entire state of Arkansas, but the long line of SMU boosters who have been dormant waiting for a moment like this are the bosses of all those big boosters who have been floating the checks down in Austin and College Station.

Highland Park and University Park has the highest concentration of billionaires per block of pretty much anywhere in the country, and SMU, even at its lowest from a conference affiliation standpoint, has always had a special place within the community. Everyone saw what the financial backers pulled off back when it was considered illegal to fill up a kid's fast food bag with hundred dollar bills with the Pony Express. Now that the Mustangs can sell an athlete on playing in a major conference, the odds are tipped heavily in SMU's favor because Arkansas can't match the NIL money and it would be shocking if Texas or Texas A&M can either.

To put in perspective how absurd things can get when that community gets behind something, the local high school newspaper at Highland Park in the early 2000s was bringing in $100,000 in ad sales along with 5,000 subscriptions in the surrounding neighborhoods. If that much is going to support a high school newspaper, think how much money the next 5-star Dallas area football player Arkansas tries to bat an eye toward is going to get. Jerry Jones has a lot of influence in the Park Cities, but not that much.

What should make Razorback fans even more nervous is head coach Rhett Lashlee. He's a Northwest Arkansas guy. Anyone in their early 40s who played high school ball in Arkansas knows the path to the state championship went through him. Lashlee was who made Gus Malzahn a name in the high school coaching ranks during his time at Shiloh Christian. Lashlee knows Arkansas prep football and he's just been handed a giant bag of cash and the opportunity to offer players the chance to take down Clemson, Florida State and the U on a yearly basis. Landing players like Greenwood quarterback Kane Archer got much more difficult this morning.

However, Razorback basketball fans have even more cause for concern. Remember the joy of watching Anthony Black and Jordan Walsh blossom over the course of last season? The homes of both of those players are a 20-minute drive on a Saturday morning from SMU's Moody Coliseum. Arkansas competes pretty well from an NIL standpoint in basketball, but not so well as to be able to hold up against having that money matched or bested while allowing Momma to make the short drive after work to see her baby take down Duke and North Carolina every year.

And before anyone starts talking about the spirit of the crowd in Bud Walton, when SMU boosters coughed up the money to hire NBA legend Larry Brown as their coach because they really love basketball and didn't want to drive far to see a winner, the hardest ticket in DFW to get was SMU basketball. It felt like the old Barnhill Arena days in the Nolan Richardson era just before the move to Bud Walton. People were going out of their way to figure out how to get in the gym. The front row was packed with Dallas Cowboys and Mavericks.

The other thing that should make Hog fans a little nervous is at some point the boosters there are going to look around for a coach they think knows the local recruiting area, has a pedigree that stacks up well against ACC powers, and who also knows how best to handle a couple of trips to California every year. Those credentials sound pretty familiar? Arkansas better hope Eric Musselman really likes skiing in the local lake and isn't a fan of 115 degree summer days and tons of traffic because the check needed to match is going to be large if SMU starts looking his way.

So remember this day going forward. It's the day a sleeping giant got tossed into the mix like croutons on top of a salad. It's the day things officially got much tougher for the Arkansas Razorbacks, even if it ends up taking a little while to catch up to them.