Five Stadiums in Five Days Not Hassle Hogs' Excuse Makers Act Like It Is

Travel schedule far kinder to Arkansas Razorbacks than most across college football

Arkansas Razorbacks mascot entertains fans during the Hog Walk prior to the game against the Kent State Golden Flashes at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium. / Nelson Chenault-USA TODAY Sports

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Game day is finally here for the Razorback football team, which for the season opener, means hitting the road for a pseudo home game against Arkansas-Pine Bluff in Little Rock.

In all reality, it's a home game for the Golden Lions with Arkansas picking up the tab for expenses. The capital city is only 40 miles from UAPB's campus and is where players go to pick up nice threads and take any ladies they are looking to truly impress for dinner.

It's actually closer for Arkansas to play their in-state counterparts in Stillwater, Oklahoma, site of the Hogs Week 2 game, than in Central Arkansas. Head coach Alonzo Hampton's players will get home, study for a Friday test and be out cold before the Hogs even turn in I-49 to begin the northern part of their trek back to Fayetteville Thursday night.

It's all part of the five stadiums in five games tour that is the Razorbacks' own doing that's been pushed as a possible excuse if things don't get off to a good start this year. However, in the long run, Arkansas still has it better than most teams that chose not to pour money into home games away from campus without the advantage of being able to recruit — at least from a travel standpoint.

vs. UAPB — 191 miles
@ Oklahoma State — 186 miles
vs. UAB — 0 miles
@ Auburn — 662 miles
@ Texas A&M (AT&T Stadium) — 333 miles

Four of those five games are easy trips for Razorbacks fans and should each see them show up in groups somewhere between 10,000 and 40,000 deep. Despite all the stadiums, Arkansas will only cover 1,372 miles one way across five weekends of football.

Alabama almost covers that when the Tide jaunt 870 miles from Tuscaloosa to Wisconsin in Week 3. Stanford travels 2,571 miles one way to take on Clemson in a Week 4 ACC match-up.

In Week 5, Washington will travel 2,851 miles one way to play Rutgers in a Big Ten conference game. Arkansas makes it all the way to the Louisiana Tech game on Nov. 23 having covered 1,000 miles less one way than the Huskies' single game.

Even after the season is complete, the Hogs will have covered only 2,183 miles on the first leg of all of their trips. For those doing the math, Arkansas covers a total of 4,366 miles round trip for the whole season.

Stanford and Washington will travel 5,142 and 5,702 miles respectively in their season openers alone. This is because Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey kept a calm head and a sensible approach to conference realignment.

The SEC is currently the only Power Four conference to still be a regional entity and it will pay off in the long run. It's why its teams will feature a little less wear and tear than their other Power Four counterparts come playoff time.

That wise approach will pay off even more for Arkansas once the contract at AT&T Stadium in Dallas-Fort Worth concludes and Arkansas State puts an official nail in the War Memorial Stadium debate for good next year.

This same schedule under those circumstances on a year where Texas A&M comes to Fayetteville knocks over 1,000 miles off the Hogs' round-trip totals while adding two extra weekends of recruiting visits for whomever will be the Arkansas coach at that time. That's a big deal and more than enough of an argument to not get into this type of silliness in scheduling once again.

Even still, the schedule is far kinder to the Razorbacks this year than excuse makers want to make it out to be. There may be five stadiums, but four will have plenty of Hogs fans in them and all could be done riding an old yellow school bus with ease if it came down to it.

HOGS FEED:

• Arkansas will try to avoid adding to history of FCS upsets once again

• ESPN still giving UAPB shot for upset of Hogs Thursday night

• Planning wedding during Razorback season can be huge mistake

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