TAT: State of the Program - On-Field Struggles Lead to Early Start Times and Poor TV Ratings for Arkansas

This article originally appeared in the February 19, 2014 issue of The Arkansas Traveler.

**NOTE: This is the fifth installment of a six-part series on the state of the Arkansas football program. For a preview of the upcoming parts of the series, refer to the dates below the article**

The Southeastern Conference’s deal with ESPN has not only guaranteed the conference a large sum of money, but maximum television coverage, as well.

However, the Razorbacks have not fully benefitted from the television exposure, as they have been given several early start times because of their struggles on the field.

Over the last two years, eight of Arkansas’ 24 games have been televised at either 11 a.m. or 11:21 a.m. on SEC TV, which was formerly known as the SEC Network. The name of the channel changed this season after ESPN’s announced it would create a separate channel called the SEC Network.

The most any other SEC team has played is four. Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi State, Tennessee and Vanderbilt have each played four such games. LSU is the only team that hasn’t played any.

The early start times, coupled with poor performance on the field, has also resulted in low ratings for the Razorbacks.

Arkansas’ highest-rated conference game last season was the LSU game, which received a 3.1 rating and was No. 15. Every SEC team except Kentucky, Mississippi State and Vanderbilt had a higher-rated game in 2013.

If you average the rankings of all 46 SEC games that received ratings, Arkansas is 11th in the SEC, with an average ranking of 29.8, according to SportsMediaWatch.com.

Texas A&M, the conference leader in that category, had an average ranking of 11.6.

The Razorbacks’ six games that have ratings data on SportsMediaWatch.com averaged a 1.5 rating, which is No. 25 in the country, but only No. 12 in the SEC. Arkansas is ahead of Vanderbilt, which is No. 39 with an average rating of 1.1, and Kentucky, which is No. 49 with an average rating of 0.8.

During those six games, just under 2.5 million fans were estimated to watch each game, compared to the nearly 6.5 million and 5.3 million that watched Alabama’s and Texas A&M’s games, respectively.

While Arkansas’ television viewing numbers are down, the conference is going through a TV boom. The SEC averaged 3.8 million viewers per game for 120 rated games.

That is 30.3 percent more viewers per game than the No. 2 conference, the Big Ten, which averaged 2.9 million viewers per game for 82 rated games.

The SEC Network deal is great for Arkansas’ program, but in order to take full advantage of it, the Razorbacks must start playing in the later games with a larger television audience, and the only way to do that is by winning.

Future “State of the Program” dates and links to previous parts…

Part I – Offense

Part II – Defense

Part III – Coaches

Part IV – Recruiting

Part VI – Attendance (Feb. 26)