Texas A&M and SEC Expansion: How Will Arkansas Be Affected?

First of all, Arkansas fans need to take a moment and thank god for Frank Broyles!  Now, before you send off an ugly comment to put me in my place, hear me out.  I have come to believe that Uncle Frank stayed way past the point of being effective.  I remember that he ran off Lou Holtz who won 72 percent of his games, Ken Hatfield who won 75 percent of his games and kept Houston Nutt, who won 61 percent of his games. 

I don't believe it's mere coincidence that Arkansas has reached heights it hasn't seen in 20 years in the first three years after Broyle's retirement.

But Arkansas fans should thank Frank Broyles for disentangling Arkansas sports from the Texas mafia over 20 years ago.  Sure the Hogs have taken their lumps since moving to the SEC, due at least partly to the loss of the fertile recruiting grounds of Texas.  But in spite of struggling to stay competitive for much of the last two decades, Arkansas has been able to use the financial stability of the SEC profit sharing to build top notch facilities for every sport on campus, while Texas has continuously treated its fellow conference members like that super hot girlfriend that you just can't trust, but you can't dump her either because she' s just so damn hot. 

Broyles had the guts to dump her over 20 years ago.

More importantly, Arkansas is not having to go through what Texas A&M is going through right now.  Or for that matter what Baylor is going through right now.  Baylor, who is on the cusp of being competitive in football for the first time since the old Southwest Conference days, is about to find themselves as a member of the WAC or Conference USA once Texas and Oklahaoma bolt to the Pac-12.  Texas A&M has decided that they are tired of being the super hot girl's ugly friend and she has decided maybe if she was standing next to someone else she wouldn't look so ugly.

As it is, the biggest question Arkansas has to wrestle with out of all of this realignment talk is what will happen to the annual game against A&M at "Jerry's World" if the Aggies become a conference rival.  Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long has hinted at a desire to keep the game in Dallas because of all the benefits that Arkansas gets from the game, but that will have to be sorted out when the dust settles.