OT: Former Michigan Associate AD Jeff Long out at Arkansas

Just as 'murderous' as the Big Ten East. Arkansas is pretty much in the same boat as MSU who is doing just fine. It was hard to predict this would happen with Bielema as he had established success at Wisconsin. Arkansas just needs to reload, find another candidate, and try again.

I agreed with Bob Stoops when he suggested the Big XII.

More ability to compete in the longer term, and it gets them back into more games in Texas, which is their natural recruting area.

Arguably a better cultural fit too.  Southern Arkansas is VERY southern in nature.  Little Rock is a southern city too.  But the big growth in that state is occurring in NW Arkansas (and to a lesser extent in NE Arkansas).  In visiting, those areas never felt the same at all as the rest of the state - much more culturally aligned to OK, Texas and Missouri vs. true Dixie-land like LA, West TN, MS or AL.

One of the worst things about all the conference-hopping that's occured over the last 30 years is the destruction of regional rivalries that had developed organically and naturally between geographically close programs. Arkansas gave up a historic rivalry with Texas when it bolted to the SEC back in 1992. It's really a crime for college football that Nebraska and Oklahoma don't play each other any more.

Both the old Big 8 and Southwest Conference made sense in terms of what their membership consisted of; IMHO Arkansas would be a better fit in the Big 12 than it does in the SEC. Same for Missouri, which is a midwestern program shoehorned into the southern SEC. Colorado in the PAC 12 is nuts, too. But money rules everything, and there's more money to be made in superconferences.

That the Big 12 thing would come into existence, they might have decided to do that. A Big 12 with Arkansas instead of Baylor makes a heck of a lot more sense as a conference, but that wasn't really on the table, and the Southwest Conference was a sinking ship. Half the league was on probation and the TV rights landscape had made it clear that the SWC was going to be screwed due to not having any presence outside of the state of Texas other than Arkansas.

I'd compare Arkansas-SEC to West Virginia-Big 12. If West Virginia had known the Maryland spot in the ACC would open up, they would have been much happier to take the spot Louisville got. But they didn't know it'd be open, they just knew the Big East was dying and that they needed to find a life raft.

Well it probably wasn't THAT big of a mistake at the time. The SEC was nowhere near as deep at that point. You had Alabama and Florida usually playing at a pretty high level in the early-mid 90s, Georgia was decent, Auburn was okay, LSU was awful, Ole Miss and Miss St were awful, and no one even knew South Carolina had a football team, nor cared to know, until Spurrier showed up. I'm sure Arkansas thought it come come in and make a name for itself in the SEC. 

Arkansas can still be a pretty darn good job with the right coach. Petrino got them as high as #3 when he had Mallett as his QB. If they make the right hire this time around, they can turn things around pretty quickly. Saban isn't getting any younger, and when he leaves there is going to be a HUGE power vacuum in the SEC. I'd give him maybe another 3-5 years before he decides he's done enough. 

At most schools that's really all it takes. An AD is not going to get canned for hiring bad coaches in non-revenue sports (barring that coach being involved in some kind of huge scandal) where money really isn't at stake. Save for a few select schools like Duke, Kansas and Kentucky, football is what drives the entire athletic department. That's where a majority of the money is made. If not all of it. That's how the women's field hockey team can pay for flights to a conference tournament, or how the men's swimming team gets a new pool facility. With money made from football. 

The AD may not be out there physically coaching the players and teaching them schemes, but if the team is bad, then that's indirectly on the AD for hiring the wrong person to lead it. If he's hired multiple coaches who proved to be poor choices, then he has routinely demonstrated a lack of ability to find the right talent. And then people stop coming to the games, stop buying merchandise, stop donating to the program, etc. 

When it's affecting your bottom line, sometimes you have to make a change. It's harsh because at the end of the day, it's just sports. But that's the reality of college football these days. A lot of times an AD's job security goes hand-in-hand with how his football team performs. 

So Dantonio can go out having owned Michigan?  No.  No way!  That creep needs to get fed some Maize and Blue humble pie first.

So Dantonio can go out having owned Michigan?  No.  No way!  That creep needs to get fed some Maize and Blue humble pie first.

bert barleycorn is dead

i think rr is a great fit at AK