re: Universities looking to lock down LR's fans and recruits

quote:

---

But kids growing up these days in central/SE Arkansas, especially kids with parents who don't have time/money to take a trip to NW Arkansas on a Saturday for a game, won't be exposed to live Arkansas football games against SEC competition. Cupcakes are essentially exhibition games when your team is good, and even worse, when your team is bad it's just an embarrassment (ULM/Toledo). That's just not a recipe to breed a strong following in other parts of the state.

---

This isn't 1980, where exposure is limited to attendance to games. Proximity doesn't matter in the age of the internet, smartphone and modern day TV contracts where every team is on TV every week.

I've said this before, but when my dad was growing up in southwest Arkansas in the 1960s, practically the only way he could watch the Hogs was for my grandad to drive to Little Rock games. Nowadays he's as connected as I am despite me living 5 hours closer to campus by way of social media, the internet, CBS, the SEC Network and ESPN