Arkansas, LSU Fans Combine to Voice Frustration with SEC

The sensible move with the addition of Oklahoma would have been to put the Sooners and Mizzou in a season-ending game while restoring the Golden Boot back to its proper Friday after Thanksgiving slot. The two former Big 12 schools have a long history of playing one another and there was rarely a more entertaining game to fill the void on Black Friday than Arkansas vs. LSU.

The social media push is deep in favor of pressuring the SEC to come to its senses to restore Arkansas-LSU as a permanent season-ending rivalry game. It's possibly the only time in forever that opposing sides of Americans have come together to agree on something.

Perhaps there are the beginnings of a big enough upswell of support for Arkansas-LSU moving back to the final week of the season to gain a little bit of attention within the SEC offices. That doesn't mean the forced rivalry games between Arkansas and Missouri and LSU and Oklahoma can't take place.

However, play them as the SEC opener so there will be a legitimate reason to care about the games. Most years, fans aren't going to invest in a season-ending game against an opponent for which there is no true emotion unless a spot in the playoffs is on the line.

Sure, for the first time ever, Arkansas fans are somewhat interested in the game against Missouri, but that is because they want to see the Hogs punch Eli Drinkwitz in the face, not because they care about the Battle Line trophy. If Drinkwitz wins or the Razorbacks start winning several in a row, which should have been the case to begin with, the game goes back to ranking just below whatever the second best non-conference game is on the schedule.

The same will be the case for LSU. Facing Oklahoma to start SEC play each season has a possibility of building something. However, it's never going to be a thing on Thanksgiving because the Tigers will just think about all those nail-biter games against Arkansas, often with much on the line, and Oklahoma will drift into dreams of Bedlam against Oklahoma State.

Commissioner Greg Sankey has a chance to right a terrible wrong with the next round of scheduling. However, the SEC doesn't have a history of taking care of teams on the western edge of its footprint not named Texas, so no need for anyone to hold their breath no matter how loudly fans complain.

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