Arkansas’ 2017 Football Schedule Released

Arkansas released its full 2017 football schedule Tuesday evening, and without further ado, here are the dates:

Sept. 2 – FLORIDA A&M (Little Rock, Ark.)

Sept. 9 – TCU

Sept. 16 – Open Date

Sept. 23 – vs. Texas A&M* (Arlington, Texas)

Sept. 30 – NEW MEXICO STATE

Oct. 7 – at South Carolina*

Oct. 14 – at Alabama*

Oct. 21 – AUBURN*

Oct. 28 – at Ole Miss*

Nov. 4 – COASTAL CAROLINA

Nov. 11 – at LSU*

Nov. 18 – MISSISSIPPI STATE*

Nov. 25 – MISSOURI*

A few quick thoughts from me:

1. Arkansas still intends on playing at War Memorial next season. The contract goes through 2018 but there’s always speculation that Arkansas may be working to buy out the deal to stop playing games in Little Rock, but that doesn’t look like it will happen this season. I still believe the Razorbacks will end the contract in 2018 by playing Vanderbilt in the city. The contract calls for one more SEC game in Little Rock and the Hogs are supposed to play the Commodores then.
2. The bye is in Week 3, which is gross.
3. Following the bye, over the next 8 weeks, five of those games are on the road since the Texas A&M game is Arkansas’ “home” game in odd-numbered years. That’s a tough set-up.
4. Another way to look at it is that three of Arkansas’ four games in November, including the last two, are in Fayetteville, which will be nice.
5. The Fayetteville schedule of Auburn, TCU, Mississippi State, and Missouri will not get the “best home schedule ever” campaign this year’s schedule received.