Sam Pittman, between his childhood in Oklahoma, and coaching earlier in his career across the Plain states in junior college, has the most connections to the Sooners and Longhorns, even before those programs grew into natural rivalries for Arkansas in the SEC.

From the podium on Wednesday at SEC Media Days in Atlanta, Pittman recalled how Arkansas beat Texas last season, 40-21, and looks forward to possibly meeting them each year when Oklahoma and Texas join the SEC. If Pittman could pick permanent rivals, those 2 and Missouri would be his choice.

“It was fun playing Texas last year, obviously it was one year,” Pittman said. “We had a nice game against them, and have a lot of respect for Coach Sark, and the Longhorns. Oklahoma would be another rival that would be pretty cool. If we can play Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, that’d be really neat. I’m not the schedule maker, I’m just the football coach, but to answer your question, that’d be really a cool deal, growing up in the state of Oklahoma.”

Pittman also spoke about Missouri, which is already on the Razorbacks’ annual schedule.

“We’re trying to make it a rivalry game,” he said. “We hadn’t won the game enough to make it a rivalry, but we’re trying to do that.”

Arkansas won last year, but had previously lost 5 in a row in that series.