Basketball Returns Tonight as Arkansas' King Sport Claims Its Throne

The Return of Basketball in Arkansas

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — After weeks of football games that have left fans with little interest, the most anticipated day for Arkansas athletics has finally arrived: the first men's basketball exhibition game. In places like Georgia, Ohio State, and Oregon where football dominates the culture, such a day would pass by unnoticed, but at a basketball school like Arkansas, it's a big deal.

The atmosphere during an exhibition game can be electric, as seen under former head coach Eric Musselman when the team defeated No. 2 Purdue at Bud Walton Arena. This event drew more than twice the usual sellout, creating a frenzy throughout the afternoon.

The preseason starts with a strong Cincinnati team that made a deep run in the NIT last season, finishing with 22 wins. The Bearcats have already caught attention by defeating No. 7 Michigan, 100-98, in Ann Arbor. Despite this anticipation for the Arkansas Razorbacks' season, there is a chance John Calipari will use mistakes to teach his team before facing Memphis in a road game next Monday.

There are still some people in the state who argue that Arkansas is a football school rather than a basketball one. However, most of these individuals are former football players from the Bobby Petrino era who experienced what it was like to have a potential Top 5 football team since the early 1980s, even though no one believed their team could win a national championship.

In contrast, Arkansas fans have had moments of hope for a national championship over the same period. The school won its first and only undisputed national title in any major sport in 1994 and returned to the national championship game the following season.

The discussion about whether Arkansas is a football or basketball school ends with the fact that football hasn't threatened to win a national championship in the past half-century. Meanwhile, basketball has consistently reached multiple Final Fours and national title games, packing out their practice games in one of the largest arenas in college basketball.

Bud Walton Arena serves as proof that the Hogs reside at a basketball school. It is equivalent to Neyland Stadium, the Horse Shoe at Ohio State, or the Big House at Ann Arbor from college football. Razorbacks football has maxed out at 3/4 of those facilities and struggles to fill them, especially late in the season. Even if the building is only the equivalent of Razorback Stadium, every seat is sold out anyway.

This means Arkansas is always first or second in attendance every basketball season. Attendance is such an issue that athletics directors have chosen to play most of their home games three hours away in Little Rock. In fact, Arkansas football played at least three of its seven home games, 43%, at War Memorial in Little Rock during this century because Razorback Stadium was a small, rundown facility.

However, the priority in the facilities race went to Bud Walton as the Hogs built the premiere facility in all of college basketball in 1993, just in time for Nolan Richardson's national championship run. The president of the United States regularly visited not only to watch from Washington but also to meet with the team afterward.

Traditionally, football fans have been okay with the Razorbacks making a run to the equivalent of the NIT every few years while sometimes missing the postseason entirely. Things become exciting when the Hogs make a run to the second round of the NCAA Tournament, but coaches are often fired immediately if that happens.

Meanwhile, making the Sweet 16 or Elite 8 is the standard for basketball. Fans don't tolerate NIT-level performances, which is why Stan Heath, John Pelphrey, and even Mike Anderson were shown the door for results that would have been acceptable on the football side.

Over the past decade, football hasn't been able to keep fans invested until the end of the season. Instead, they have checked out in November, or in the case of this season, numbers clearly show they checked out in early September. Recently, the Razorbacks haven't even been able to keep their players on the team all the way to the end of the season, much less invest enough to make a genuine effort against Missouri to close the season. That's why the only season the Hogs have tried lately at the end of the year was in 2021 during Sam Pittman's big year.

That's definitely not been an issue for the basketball program, which has dominated the postseason over the past half-decade, restoring the level of expectation for the team.

On the recruiting side, basketball regularly pursues 4-stars and 5-stars while football struggles to land 3-star recruits. Even in the lean times while the program tried to replace Richardson, there were All-American level players on the roster who went on to big NBA careers.

Part of the recruiting success is because Arkansas is loaded with top-level recruits in basketball due to being a strong basketball state. There are even places where the sport can be played under interstate bridges.

There are so few football recruits in Arkansas that some years it's unclear if there is a single high school player worth taking a risk on as an SEC team. The program just hasn't inspired local athletes the way Razorbacks basketball has.

That's because this is a basketball state, and Arkansas is a basketball school. The history, money, and results all support it. Football is a sometimes fun distraction, although rarely. However, basketball is king.