re: SEC States listed by population

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I, uh, augmented you list to make it more accurate.

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You are not wrong, but you left out the huge group of coastal Louisiana folk that were sheltered in Houston in the wake of Katrina and never went home.

Arkansas football was terrible during his time and many Arkansans followed the St. Louis Cardinals or followed other schools like the bear did with Bama.

It took first the efforts of the AD John Barnhill to get the state full behind the Razorbacks.

He was among the first athletic directors to establish a statewide radio network for football games. It put the Razorbacks in virtually every Arkansas home for fan support and recruiting. He also established the Razorback clubs for fundraising, which reached not only across the state but also in out of state Razorback strongholds such as Tulsa, Dallas and Memphis. Barnhill and various coaches would speak at Razorback clubs throughout the year, with money from memberships and other contributions going to the Razorback foundation. This made the program self supporting.

Barnhill even used Memphis to host the 1947 Texas game. He got Little Rock to build War Memorial Stadium because traveling to Fayetteville was a challenge.

Frank Broyles gets much credit for the rise of Arkansas but if it wasn't for the efforts of John Barnhill then the fan support would have been awful and football as well.

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Biloxi/Gulfport/ Pascagoula 300k

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The MS coast is now about 450k

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Dude combined San Antonio and Austin and they are over an hour away from each other

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So are the eastern and western edges of the DFW metroplex and the north/south edges of the Houston metroplex.

Big metropolitan areas are ... big.

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Republic of West Florida (including Nola)
New Orleans metro. 1.5 million
Mobile/ Baldwin County 800k
Pensacola/ Destin 700k
Biloxi/Gulfport/ Pascagoula 300k

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New Orleans was never in the Republic, despite being located east(north) of the River.

as far back as the 1762 Treaty of Fontainebleau, the City was treated as part of Louisiana, rather than part of West Florida.

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Folks like Bear Bryant was from there but left to find success in another state

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Bear was on his way to coach Arkansas when the germans bombed Pearl Harbor. He went and joined the navy.

Arkansas luck, what could have been I guess.

Frank Broyles did a fine job though.

SC will add another million by the next census ... and I hate it but, it's inevitable.

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New Orleans was never in the Republic, despite being located east(north) of the River.

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That's right, hence the name Florida parishes:



Basically, everything north of Pontchartrain and east of the big river.

ETA: Also, I'm pretty sure no part of current day Florida was in the Republic, so no Destin or Pensacola either.

He would have stayed a few years and would leave.

I think he would have struggled a bit and the lack of fan support would push him to find better jobs even if Alabama didn't give him a call.

I just don't believe he would had genuine interest in turning the program around.

The 1954 season is when Arkansans began to have serious interest in Arkansas football.

Arkansas fans bought Bowden Wyatt a cadillac but he took the car to a better job in Knoxville.

Barnhill hired Jack Mitchell but he was mediocre and Arkansas fans weren't satisfied.

Then he hired Frank Broyles.

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He would have stayed a few years and would leave. I think he would have struggled a bit and the lack of fan support would push him to find better jobs even if Alabama didn't give him a call. I just don't believe he would had genuine interest in turning the program around.

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We have no idea how Bear would have turned out here unless you have special powers.

But it all worked out for the best from what we actually know with Frank.