Maybe losing that Thanksgiving weekend game with LSU wasn't so bad after all

[Demaghog]

The Arkansas/Missouri game was the most watched college football game on Friday with 4.4M viewers, beating LSU/Texas A&M which only had 2.91M viewers.

I found it on texags: http://texags.com/forums/5/topics/2587130

[geauxhawgs]

I don't care how many viewers there are, Arkansas/LSU was meant to be played on Black Friday for the boot. Period.

LSU BLEAUXS! WOO PIG!!

[ChicoHog]

The Arkansas/Missouri game was the most watched college football game on Friday with 4.4M viewers, beating LSU/Texas A&M which only had 2.91M viewers.

I found it on texags: http://texags.com/forums/5/topics/2587130

LSU/A&M was Thursday night competing against the Niners/Seahawks game. 

[Lake City Hog]

I think that may be part of the point---if you play on Thanksgiving day or night you will be competing against the NFL for viewers.
Playing on Black Friday means that you are THE GAME for the day.

[Porcius Magnus]

It will be a bit different playing in Baton Rouge at night in the middle of the season instead of the afternoon start we had after Thanksgiving day.

[Mike_e]

Aggis just don't get it do they.

Nobody likes them and few ever will.

If playing tejas the Friday after TDay every year weren't such a bad idea I'd love to get that game every year.

[Paul]

It's funny that the TCU/Texas game had the fewest viewers of all Power 5 games that weekend.  Big 12 sux

[WizardofhOgZ]

LSU/A&M was Thursday night competing against the Niners/Seahawks game.

This was one of the reasons I was not nearly as upset about "the swap" of the LSU game with A&M on Thanksgiving weekend as almost everyone else was 2 years when this "rumor" about the switch first came out.  I said back then that I was confident - despite his public comments about "knowing nothing about any switch" (which he HAD to say) - that Long was involved in back-room conversations/negotiations with the SEC and LSU and A&M that would win many concessions for us in return for acquiescing to the desire of those two to play on Thanksgiving weekend.

In the final analysis, we got every concession I speculated about, plus one or two I didn't think of.

1)  We replaced S. Carolina - who we were shotgun-wedded to when both of us came into the SEC with no tradition - for Mizzou as an annual SEC East opponent.  While it is true that we have no tradition with Mizzou, they ARE a border state and a lot of families and friends from both schools live in the other state.  It has real potential to develop into something meaningful over time.  On the other hand, S. Carolina was never relevant until Spurrier came along, is marginally so now, and will fall back to mediocrity when he retires (soon).  Plus, it is a very inconvenient and far away game for Hog fans to get to, and we never generated any kind of rivalry with them in 0ver 20 years of playing every year.  They finally had a few good teams, which led to a couple of interesting games.  But, by and large, we dominated them and no "rivalry" developed.

Moreover, this transition of opponents will boost our recruiting profile in Missouri (St. Louis, Kansas City), while at the same time breaking up the annual Mizzou-A&M game both had wanted to keep.  This hurts Missouri's recruiting in Texas and virtually eliminates A&M's recruiting in Missouri.  Both of these developments help Arkansas recruiting in those states, which we have and will continue to recruit.  I can tell you that the Aggies were counting on continuing the Missouri series instead of getting stuck with S. Carolina, and are pissed off about it.

2)  We no longer play Alabama as our SEC opener every year, as we have almost every year since joining the SEC.  IMO, it's better for us to get a conference game or two under our belt before playing the biggest of all SEC dogs and starting off behind the 8 ball every year (well, that's how it has often played out).  Arkansas seems to play it's best ball later in the year, not at the beginning, so this is to our favor.

3)  We got the Aggies to agree to return to Jerry World for that series for the next decade.  They were the ones behind moving it back to the campuses for 2 years, because their fans don't support the game nearly as much as ours have.  Plus, it REALLY helps our recruiting profile in Texas to play down there every year.  Of course, A&M plays most of their games in Texas every season so that is of no advantage to them and - actually - they'd rather have a home game for $$ and bringing recruits in.  So, that's another "win" for us.

4)  We maintain a "rivalry" game on Black Friday.  As we've seen from the ratings this year, it's WHEN you play almost as much as WHO you are playing.  If our game/series vs. Mizzou continues to develop, the ratings will gain as well.  Meanwhile - we still play LSU EVERY year - just a couple of games earlier.  And when our game with LSU means something (as it appears destined to do often), we WILL get good ratings and feature treatment on the SEC Network/ESPN or CBS.

LSU and A&M wanted that weekend, but we retained the plum day and time slot.  So, all in all, we came out even or possibly ahead, IMO.  I loved the LSU Black Friday games over the years, but I'll always enjoy playing them . . . and Alabama, and Auburn, and Georgia, and Florida . . . etc.  Life in the SEC is challenging - but good and exciting.

[ChicoHog]

Wizard-great post.  Do you know if A&M/LSU are contractually obligated to play on Thursday night or can they move that game to Friday also?  over the last few years more and more games are now on Friday and almost as many that are on Saturday.  I think there was around 10 or 15 Friday games last season.  I hope they don't move A&M to Friday and take over our spot like they did with Bama/Auburn a couple years ago. 

[oldhawg]

Wizard-great post.  Do you know if A&M/LSU are contractually obligated to play on Thursday night or can they move that game to Friday also?  over the last few years more and more games are now on Friday and almost as many that are on Saturday.  I think there was around 10 or 15 Friday games last season.  I hope they don't move A&M to Friday and take over our spot like they did with Bama/Auburn a couple years ago. 

I would think that the SEC would like to keep the A&M vs LSU game on Thursday to compete for air time with Texas vs TCU.

[redeye]

In addition to the excellent points made by the Wizard, I also just love listening to LSU fans complain about playing on Thanksgiving Day.  Some of the complaints even mention how they wish they still played Arkansas on Black Friday, instead.  LOL!

[rzrbackrob]

Wizard-great post.  Do you know if A&M/LSU are contractually obligated to play on Thursday night or can they move that game to Friday also?  over the last few years more and more games are now on Friday and almost as many that are on Saturday.  I think there was around 10 or 15 Friday games last season.  I hope they don't move A&M to Friday and take over our spot like they did with Bama/Auburn a couple years ago. 

My understanding is the Aggies/LSU game is played on Thursday when A$M is the home team and Friday or Saturday when LSU is the home team.

[hoglady]

My understanding is the Aggies/LSU game is played on Thursday when A$M is the home team and Friday or Saturday when LSU is the home team.

That is correct.
My LSU friends didn't like the switch to A&M because of the Thanksgiving day game when played at A&M. It will not be a Thanksgiving Day game when played at LSU - it will be played on Saturday 11/28 this year.

[DeltaBoy]

I'm Still upset with the SEC for taking the LSU Thanksgiving game away.

[BluegrassRazorback]

I think that may be part of the point---if you play on Thanksgiving day or night you will be competing against the NFL for viewers.
Playing on Black Friday means that you are THE GAME for the day.

You are corect!  It's a really sweet spot fir Arkansas and it's now becoming an American Classic - been that way fir almost 20 years - Ark plays ''somebody'' on BF

Btw: Ark vs Mizzou didn't match Ark Vs LSU the previous year - down 13 points - some fell it's closer to 17 points because CBS used Overbight viewing numbers (Adding AfN ETC) to help the numbers

So Srk vs Mizxou failed in its Inagural game to match estimates -

Still - it wasn't as bad as I predicted - I thought it would be down at least 20 %
The Black Fruday game is great for Arkansas football no matter who we play
While I have been very vocal about how the SEC screwed Ark (I still Believe that)
The game is so valuable to Ark we need to keep it going and do as much as we can to make it better - so CBS doesn't try and place another game on that day to replace us
So it's Arkansad vs Mizxou - may it be successful because it benifits Arkansad

Please forgive my typing Im traveling using my iPhone - typing while someone else is driving and it's late

[redeye]

Please forgive my typing Im traveling using my iPhone - typing while someone else is driving and it's late

Glad you added that!  I thought you'd had one too many. 

I'm Still upset with the SEC for taking the LSU Thanksgiving game away.

You should be upset with LSU, because they had to okay it.  And that should be enough to make you not wanna play LSU on BF.  It's their loss.

[CFB_Fanatic]

I would think that the SEC would like to keep the A&M vs LSU game on Thursday to compete for air time with Texas vs TCU.

From what I understand the only way Jeff Long would concede the LSU game for Mizzou was that Arkansas would get to keep the Friday time slot. However, from what I understand that agreement wasnt long term.

Sounds to me that the SEC will probably give us the Friday game for a couple of years and then jerk us around and put LSU-TAMU on Friday and give us another time slot.

It seems we get the step-child treatment often from the SEC offices, so it wouldnt surprise me.

[PositronHog]

This was one of the reasons I was not nearly as upset about "the swap" of the LSU game with A&M on Thanksgiving weekend as almost everyone else was 2 years when this "rumor" about the switch first came out.  I said back then that I was confident - despite his public comments about "knowing nothing about any switch" (which he HAD to say) - that Long was involved in back-room conversations/negotiations with the SEC and LSU and A&M that would win many concessions for us in return for acquiescing to the desire of those two to play on Thanksgiving weekend.

In the final analysis, we got every concession I speculated about, plus one or two I didn't think of.

1)  We replaced S. Carolina - who we were shotgun-wedded to when both of us came into the SEC with no tradition - for Mizzou as an annual SEC East opponent.  While it is true that we have no tradition with Mizzou, they ARE a border state and a lot of families and friends from both schools live in the other state.  It has real potential to develop into something meaningful over time.  On the other hand, S. Carolina was never relevant until Spurrier came along, is marginally so now, and will fall back to mediocrity when he retires (soon).  Plus, it is a very inconvenient and far away game for Hog fans to get to, and we never generated any kind of rivalry with them in 0ver 20 years of playing every year.  They finally had a few good teams, which led to a couple of interesting games.  But, by and large, we dominated them and no "rivalry" developed.

Moreover, this transition of opponents will boost our recruiting profile in Missouri (St. Louis, Kansas City), while at the same time breaking up the annual Mizzou-A&M game both had wanted to keep.  This hurts Missouri's recruiting in Texas and virtually eliminates A&M's recruiting in Missouri.  Both of these developments help Arkansas recruiting in those states, which we have and will continue to recruit.  I can tell you that the Aggies were counting on continuing the Missouri series instead of getting stuck with S. Carolina, and are pissed off about it.

2)  We no longer play Alabama as our SEC opener every year, as we have almost every year since joining the SEC.  IMO, it's better for us to get a conference game or two under our belt before playing the biggest of all SEC dogs and starting off behind the 8 ball every year (well, that's how it has often played out).  Arkansas seems to play it's best ball later in the year, not at the beginning, so this is to our favor.

3)  We got the Aggies to agree to return to Jerry World for that series for the next decade.  They were the ones behind moving it back to the campuses for 2 years, because their fans don't support the game nearly as much as ours have.  Plus, it REALLY helps our recruiting profile in Texas to play down there every year.  Of course, A&M plays most of their games in Texas every season so that is of no advantage to them and - actually - they'd rather have a home game for $$ and bringing recruits in.  So, that's another "win" for us.

4)  We maintain a "rivalry" game on Black Friday.  As we've seen from the ratings this year, it's WHEN you play almost as much as WHO you are playing.  If our game/series vs. Mizzou continues to develop, the ratings will gain as well.  Meanwhile - we still play LSU EVERY year - just a couple of games earlier.  And when our game with LSU means something (as it appears destined to do often), we WILL get good ratings and feature treatment on the SEC Network/ESPN or CBS.

LSU and A&M wanted that weekend, but we retained the plum day and time slot.  So, all in all, we came out even or possibly ahead, IMO.  I loved the LSU Black Friday games over the years, but I'll always enjoy playing them . . . and Alabama, and Auburn, and Georgia, and Florida . . . etc.  Life in the SEC is challenging - but good and exciting.

very good info, thanks.....

[Pork Twain]

LSU/A&M was Thursday night competing against the Niners/Seahawks game. 

So...our time slot still wins

[Pork Twain]

This was one of the reasons I was not nearly as upset about "the swap" of the LSU game with A&M on Thanksgiving weekend as almost everyone else was 2 years when this "rumor" about the switch first came out.  I said back then that I was confident - despite his public comments about "knowing nothing about any switch" (which he HAD to say) - that Long was involved in back-room conversations/negotiations with the SEC and LSU and A&M that would win many concessions for us in return for acquiescing to the desire of those two to play on Thanksgiving weekend.

In the final analysis, we got every concession I speculated about, plus one or two I didn't think of.

1)  We replaced S. Carolina - who we were shotgun-wedded to when both of us came into the SEC with no tradition - for Mizzou as an annual SEC East opponent.  While it is true that we have no tradition with Mizzou, they ARE a border state and a lot of families and friends from both schools live in the other state.  It has real potential to develop into something meaningful over time.  On the other hand, S. Carolina was never relevant until Spurrier came along, is marginally so now, and will fall back to mediocrity when he retires (soon).  Plus, it is a very inconvenient and far away game for Hog fans to get to, and we never generated any kind of rivalry with them in 0ver 20 years of playing every year.  They finally had a few good teams, which led to a couple of interesting games.  But, by and large, we dominated them and no "rivalry" developed.

Moreover, this transition of opponents will boost our recruiting profile in Missouri (St. Louis, Kansas City), while at the same time breaking up the annual Mizzou-A&M game both had wanted to keep.  This hurts Missouri's recruiting in Texas and virtually eliminates A&M's recruiting in Missouri.  Both of these developments help Arkansas recruiting in those states, which we have and will continue to recruit.  I can tell you that the Aggies were counting on continuing the Missouri series instead of getting stuck with S. Carolina, and are pissed off about it.

2)  We no longer play Alabama as our SEC opener every year, as we have almost every year since joining the SEC.  IMO, it's better for us to get a conference game or two under our belt before playing the biggest of all SEC dogs and starting off behind the 8 ball every year (well, that's how it has often played out).  Arkansas seems to play it's best ball later in the year, not at the beginning, so this is to our favor.

3)  We got the Aggies to agree to return to Jerry World for that series for the next decade.  They were the ones behind moving it back to the campuses for 2 years, because their fans don't support the game nearly as much as ours have.  Plus, it REALLY helps our recruiting profile in Texas to play down there every year.  Of course, A&M plays most of their games in Texas every season so that is of no advantage to them and - actually - they'd rather have a home game for $$ and bringing recruits in.  So, that's another "win" for us.

4)  We maintain a "rivalry" game on Black Friday.  As we've seen from the ratings this year, it's WHEN you play almost as much as WHO you are playing.  If our game/series vs. Mizzou continues to develop, the ratings will gain as well.  Meanwhile - we still play LSU EVERY year - just a couple of games earlier.  And when our game with LSU means something (as it appears destined to do often), we WILL get good ratings and feature treatment on the SEC Network/ESPN or CBS.

LSU and A&M wanted that weekend, but we retained the plum day and time slot.  So, all in all, we came out even or possibly ahead, IMO.  I loved the LSU Black Friday games over the years, but I'll always enjoy playing them . . . and Alabama, and Auburn, and Georgia, and Florida . . . etc.  Life in the SEC is challenging - but good and exciting.

Very good breakdown and a few of these points are why I loved this move from the start.

[davispard]

This was one of the reasons I was not nearly as upset about "the swap" of the LSU game with A&M on Thanksgiving weekend as almost everyone else was 2 years when this "rumor" about the switch first came out.  I said back then that I was confident - despite his public comments about "knowing nothing about any switch" (which he HAD to say) - that Long was involved in back-room conversations/negotiations with the SEC and LSU and A&M that would win many concessions for us in return for acquiescing to the desire of those two to play on Thanksgiving weekend.

In the final analysis, we got every concession I speculated about, plus one or two I didn't think of.

1)  We replaced S. Carolina - who we were shotgun-wedded to when both of us came into the SEC with no tradition - for Mizzou as an annual SEC East opponent.  While it is true that we have no tradition with Mizzou, they ARE a border state and a lot of families and friends from both schools live in the other state.  It has real potential to develop into something meaningful over time.  On the other hand, S. Carolina was never relevant until Spurrier came along, is marginally so now, and will fall back to mediocrity when he retires (soon).  Plus, it is a very inconvenient and far away game for Hog fans to get to, and we never generated any kind of rivalry with them in 0ver 20 years of playing every year.  They finally had a few good teams, which led to a couple of interesting games.  But, by and large, we dominated them and no "rivalry" developed.

Moreover, this transition of opponents will boost our recruiting profile in Missouri (St. Louis, Kansas City), while at the same time breaking up the annual Mizzou-A&M game both had wanted to keep.  This hurts Missouri's recruiting in Texas and virtually eliminates A&M's recruiting in Missouri.  Both of these developments help Arkansas recruiting in those states, which we have and will continue to recruit.  I can tell you that the Aggies were counting on continuing the Missouri series instead of getting stuck with S. Carolina, and are pissed off about it.

2)  We no longer play Alabama as our SEC opener every year, as we have almost every year since joining the SEC.  IMO, it's better for us to get a conference game or two under our belt before playing the biggest of all SEC dogs and starting off behind the 8 ball every year (well, that's how it has often played out).  Arkansas seems to play it's best ball later in the year, not at the beginning, so this is to our favor.

3)  We got the Aggies to agree to return to Jerry World for that series for the next decade.  They were the ones behind moving it back to the campuses for 2 years, because their fans don't support the game nearly as much as ours have.  Plus, it REALLY helps our recruiting profile in Texas to play down there every year.  Of course, A&M plays most of their games in Texas every season so that is of no advantage to them and - actually - they'd rather have a home game for $$ and bringing recruits in.  So, that's another "win" for us.

4)  We maintain a "rivalry" game on Black Friday.  As we've seen from the ratings this year, it's WHEN you play almost as much as WHO you are playing.  If our game/series vs. Mizzou continues to develop, the ratings will gain as well.  Meanwhile - we still play LSU EVERY year - just a couple of games earlier.  And when our game with LSU means something (as it appears destined to do often), we WILL get good ratings and feature treatment on the SEC Network/ESPN or CBS.

LSU and A&M wanted that weekend, but we retained the plum day and time slot.  So, all in all, we came out even or possibly ahead, IMO.  I loved the LSU Black Friday games over the years, but I'll always enjoy playing them . . . and Alabama, and Auburn, and Georgia, and Florida . . . etc.  Life in the SEC is challenging - but good and exciting.

Everything you said.  Well thought out!!

[GalaHawg]

The Arkansas/Missouri game was the most watched college football game on Friday with 4.4M viewers, beating LSU/Texas A&M which only had 2.91M viewers.

I found it on texags: http://texags.com/forums/5/topics/2587130

Probably, as many Georgia people were watching the game as Mizzou or Arkansas.

[Pork Twain]

Probably, as many Georgia people were watching the game as Mizzou or Arkansas.

As long as we are both good teams, there will always be fans of other teams watching our game and that gets us into more and more homes.

[sooeey pig pig pig]

I see it as a lateral move.  No feelings either way on the issue. 

I'm just glad the Hogs are moving in the right direction! 

We've got plenty of heavy scheduling in the future with TCU and Michigan.  We're just fine.