Arkansas State believes in playing in-state opponents

One of the biggest debates amongst division one programs in the state of Arkansas is whether or not instate teams should play games against each other.

Obviously there are programs that do play in-state opponents, Arkansas State being one of them. They have hosted UAPB and UCA in football in recent years, and will host UAPB once against this Saturday.

The Red Wolf basketball and baseball teams have hosted in-state opponents as well. This doesn’t include the annual rivalry against Little Rock, which is a fantastic game to check out if you have never done so. The atmosphere is electric.

A-State Sports Information

You can also discuss the in-state division two teams who all play each other in the same conference. They have some phenomenal games as well.

Obviously when this conversation comes up, the Arkansas Razorbacks are mentioned due to their policy not to play in-state teams. While a game between the Razorbacks and the Red Wolves would most likely be a sellout crowd due to all of the hype, it is a game that simply is not going to happen.

In fact, Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long made comments regarding this earlier this week.

“There are no plans and no discussions to play ASU,” said Long. “We've had the long standing policy of not playing in state schools because we feel like it divides people within the state. Right now, from our point of view, somebody can be a UCA grad, they can be a Monticello grad, they can be an Arkansas State grad and they still be a Razorback. Again, coming from a small state, we need as many fans as we can cheering for us and pulling for us and engaging with us coming to games, and if we start playing those schools, those people will have to divide their loyalties."

Due to that, it is up to Arkansas State, UCA, UAPB, and the multiple D2 teams to keep the tradition going.

Arkansas State head coach Blake Anderson is certainly in favor of it.

“I think it Is huge for the state and huge for football in the state. For me, it just makes a lot of sense,” said Anderson. “We are always going to look to do that, and continue to create that opportunity for the state of Arkansas, and for guys to travel just drive down the road a few hours and load up the stadium, keep the money in the state, and just build up football in the state of Arkansas. We will continue to do that as often as we can.”

“I like the fact we are playing another in-state school,” Anderson added. “We want to make sure we do that as often as we can. Terry [Mohajir] and I have talked about that. We always want to create an opportunity to play an in-state opponent. There’s risks involved with that as we saw last year. If you don’t play your best and you lose a game it’s not a lot of fun to listen to that for a while, but it’s still the right thing to do for the state, and it’s good for the football in the state.”

As noted, the UAPB Golden Lions are set to invade Centennial Bank Stadium this Saturday. They are sure to bring a crowd, and head coach Monte Coleman has an upset on his mind.

“We have another tough game this week,” Coleman said. “We travel to Arkansas State, and they’re a very good football team. They were off last week when they were scheduled to play Miami, but because of the hurricanes on the East coast that game was cancelled. They’ve had two weeks to prepare for us, and we’re going to go into a hostile territory. We have a chip on our shoulder, and we’re going to go in and try to upset Arkansas State.”

While Arkansas State is certainly heavily favored in this game, it is nice to see two in-state opponents who are planning on giving it all they’ve got against one another. This is something that both the fans of each school, and the state of Arkansas deserve.

I've said all of that to say this; if you want to see two in-state division one football programs go head to head, then you need to be at Centennial Bank Stadium this Saturday at 6:00 pm to see the Red Wolves as they host the Golden Lions.

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