OPINION — Like It Is
Going up for the Arkansas Razorbacks season-opener and not sure if you want to set up a tailgate for a game that should be decided at the half? No problem.
The Land of Opportunity Scholarship Campaign is sponsoring the game against Alabama A&M and is having a tailgate in HogTown from 11:15 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. There will be refreshments, swag and opportunities to hear more about this life-changing scholarship.
The Hunt family will be given the game ball sometime during the game for their contributions of $100 million, probably during the first TV timeout.
The weather is supposed to be great, more like a Saturday in the middle of October rather than the last one in August.
The Land of Opportunity Scholarship program is for closing the graduation rate gap between Pell Grant recipients and the rest.
And it’s about getting kids from Arkansas to come to Fayetteville and get the education they deserve. It’s about Arkansas. It’s why the UA is here and Chancellor Charles Robinson recognizes that.
It is a generational return on an investment in the great state of Arkansas.
The hills will be alive with music, Hog calling and football this weekend, and this tailgate could be the first step in a great day.
. . .
Alabama A&M competes in the Southwestern Athletic Conference of the FCS and it was predicted to finish fourth in the SWAC East.
The Bulldog have a new coach in Sam Shade, who played eight seasons in the NFL before starting his coaching career in high school and after two seasons became the head coach at Miles College.
He played for the Alabama Crimson Tide and was on the 1992 national championship team.
His background is defense and already he’s building a reputation for his brand of defense.
. . .
A few things you shouldn’t expect to see this Saturday:
A) Much of Arkansas’ offensive scheme, which is plenty complicated to begin with, but should be pretty basic for Alabama A&M.
B) The Bulldogs getting many helmets in Tom Murphy’s pregame analysis for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
C) Taylen Green in the fourth quarter. In fact, you shouldn’t see any starters.
D) Coach Sam Pittman limping painfully on the sideline. About this time last year he learned he needed hip replacement and opted to wait until the end of the season to have it. It was apparently a huge success.
E) A whole lot of Alabama A&M fans. While they have a good core, this is a money game for a team that competes against Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
F) More than 5,000 Razorback fans in the stadium at the end of the game.
. . .
There are 32 NFL teams, 31 privately owned, and four colleges have the most owners in the league.
The Green Bay Packers are publicly owned.
Boston College, Pitt, Texas and the University of Arkansas each have two NFL owners.
Jerry Jones, who played football for the Razorbacks, is the long-time owner of the Dallas Cowboys and Rob Walton bought the Denver Broncos in 2022 for $4.65 billion. It was reported he paid cash.
Both graduated from the UA.
For nine consecutive years Forbes magazine has declared the Cowboys as the most valuable team in the world, currently worth north of $10 billion. Jones bought the Cowboys in 1989 for $140 million.
Jones and Walton would make great advisors for the UA as they continue to search for a sponsor for Razorback Stadium, which is still called Reynolds Razorback Stadium although the contract ended June 30, 2024.
Not insinuating either alum should personally sign a check — both families give tons to academics — just saying they might be decent consultants.
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Wally Hall is assistant managing sports editor for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. A graduate of the University of Arkansas-Little Rock after an honorable discharge from the U.S. Air Force, he is a member and past president of the Football Writers Association of America, member of the U.S. Basketball Writers Association, past president and current executive committee and board member of the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame, and voter for the Heisman Trophy. He has been awarded Arkansas Sportswriter of the Year 10 times and has been inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame and Arkansas Sportswriters and Sportscasters Hall of Fame.
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