Sam Pittman is not afraid to put his Razorbacks football program up against the toughest competition in the country.
After all, Arkansas competes in the SEC West, arguably the toughest conference and division in college football. Even more, Oklahoma and Texas, two elite Big 12 powerhouse programs, are set to enter SEC dominion in the 2025 season or potentially sooner.
As competition gets stronger, Pittman feels the arrival of Texas to the conference would be a game he would like to see on the Razorbacks’ schedule annually.
“I’m not calling out Texas,” Pittman told ESPN’s Chris Low. I have high respect for them…Personally, I love rivalry games and would hate… not to play them every year, for the fans and everybody else.
The matchup between both teams dates back to when both programs competed in the days of the old Southwest Conference, which produced unforgettable competition.
Currently, the SEC is focused on creating a single-division model that would include an eight-or-nine-game conference play format and eliminating the two-division format.
The eight-game format would include teams having one permanent opponent conference game while facing seven different conference opponents. The nine-game format would allow teams to have three permanent SEC opponents and six rotating.
While the eight-game model earned more support during the league’s spring meetings earlier this month in Destin, Fla., Pittman favors the nine-game format. He believes it “opens the doors” for more rivalry games while also allowing the program to keep its current SEC East cross-division opponent Missouri.
And having the opportunity to compete against Texas, Pittman said it would do wonders for the program’s recruiting efforts and college football tradition.
“…We've got a lot of Texas kids on our team, I think it would be a neat home-and-home each year,” Pittman said. “…For the tradition of this game and things of that nature — I would like to play that game every year.”
In the 2021 season, Arkansas defeated Texas, 40-21, on its way to a season that saw the Razorbacks win at least nine games in a season since '11. Last week, Pittman signed a new contract in which he will earn more than $6 million per year.
