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Hunter Yurachek responds to Texas A&M’s interest in moving Arkansas game to College Station for 2020 season
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Texas A&M and Arkansas have met in Arlington’s AT&T Stadium every year dating back to 2013 season but there’s a chance that streak is broken in 2020.
Several things would need to take place in order for that to happen but after Texas A&M lost a home game after the Pac-12 announced it plans to play a conference-only schedule in 2020 (Texas A&M was scheduled to host Colorado on Sept. 19), the Aggies have been busy working in order to ensure the program has an opportunity to host as many opponents for the coming season as possible.
One topic of conversation in College Station should the SEC shift to a conference-only schedule is the location of the upcoming Texas A&M-Arkansas game. If the SEC goes to a conference-only schedule, the Aggies would have only three home games this season.
That’s not something Texas A&M AD Ross Bjork would support, as he recently noted on the school’s official website.
“We would need that game on campus,” Bjork said of the Arkansas game. “You guys know my philosophy on that game long-term. To me, that game should be on campus anyway. But if something were to happen this year, we’d do everything we can to move that game to our campus. This year it’s our home game.”
Following those comments from Bjork, Arkansas AD Hunter Yurachek was asked for his reaction to a potential move of the annual game to College Station during a Thursday call with the media.
While Arkansas has a well-documented connection to Jerry Jones, Yurachek said he would support the moving of the 2020 game to Texas A&M if that meant the 2021 game would be moved to Fayetteville.
“That’s their home game this year. They’ve already lost a home game versus Colorado, so I think Ross has a desire to looking to move that game to College Station,” Yurachek said. “I’ve listened, obviously, we have a relationship with the Jones family here. They are very supportive of that game, they own that venue, so his feelings on that may be slightly different than mine but we’ll see how the schedule plays out.
“If that game is moved to College Station, I think it would only be fair that we get that return game here in Fayetteville next year, then potentially resume in Dallas for the final two years of that contract. We wouldn’t want to see Texas A&M get a home game this year and for us to not get that return game next year.”
Considering the limitation in fan capacity that’s expected for the upcoming college football season, that’s a trade that would certainly favor the Razorbacks.
A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Michael Wayne Bratton oversees the news coverage for Saturday Down South. Michael previously worked for FOX Sports and NFL.com
