Game Moved to A&M Campus
The football game between Arkansas and Texas A&M has been moved from Cowboy Stadium in Dallas to Texas A&M’s Kyle Field in College Station, Texas.
“The game was moved to an on-campus site for 2012 and 2013 to accommodate some scheduling issues based on Texas A&M’s entrance into the Southeastern Conference,” said Kevin Trainor, associate director for athletics. “Obviously before their entry into the SEC, the game against Arkansas had been a non-conference game and now it is one of their four conference home games.”
A major factor for the game being moved to College Station was so Texas A&M could have another home game their first year in the SEC, Trainor said.
“Texas A&M felt it was very important to have the full complement of four home SEC games in our first year in the league,” said Alan Cannon, associate athletic director of media relations for Texas A&M.
“Playing at Kyle Field in front of the 12th Man, with 31,000 students standing throughout the game in support of the football team, is always an advantage. It does not guarantee a victory, but the support at home has been tremendous,” he said.
Both universities, the SEC and the Dallas Cowboys were involved in finding a solution to the change in circumstances.
The number of tickets available to students and Arkansas fans will be limited because of playing at another team’s home stadium, Trainor said. However, many students are still making the trip to College Station to watch the game.
“I grew up in Texas and my dad is the biggest Aggie fan to never go to A&M,” said Ethan Glaess, senior engineering major. “To this day whenever I go home, he wakes me up to the Aggie war hymn instead of my normal alarm. So growing up I was the biggest Longhorn fan and it has been a dream of mine to go to a game at Kyle Field as an opposing student. This is what I consider a golden opportunity, and there was no way I was missing this short of a family emergency.”
In the 2013 season, the game will be played at the UA before returning to Cowboy Stadium in 2014 where it will remain for 11 years through the 2024 football season, Trainor said.
“With 31,000 tickets set aside for an Aggie home game at Kyle Field, and many of those terrific yard-line seats, the 12th Man would love to play at Kyle Field all of the time,” Cannon said, “but, if we can’t play at Kyle Field, playing at Cowboy Stadium, one of the top venues in the entire country, is also very attractive to our team and our fans.”
Although Cowboy Stadium is a major attraction, students at the UA might also prefer that the game alternate between campuses.
“While it is a nice stadium, I would like to keep it alternating between the campuses,” Glaess said. “It is the people that make the atmosphere great and whether in Arlington, College Station or Fayetteville. The atmosphere will always travel with the fans. College football was meant to be on college campuses, not NFL fields.”
Arkansas and Texas A&M renewed their football series in 2009 and have played their matchup at Cowboy Stadium as the Southwest Classic for the past three years.
“The desire by both institutions was to play a meaningful non-conference game in the new Cowboy’s Stadium to further provide exposure to both programs,” Trainor said. “In addition, the game provides exposure for the University of Arkansas in Texas a recruiting ground for both students and student-athletes.”
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Billy Fulbright
