:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/photo_images/4252590/127771802.jpg)
Looking at how well each team knows the conference's newest members
| Arkansas History vs. New SEC Teams | |||
| First Meeting | Last Meeting | Record vs. | |
| Missouri | 1906 | 2008 | 2-3 |
| Texas A&M | 1903 |
2011 | 41-24-3 |
If there's a school in the SEC that doesn't need any time to get to know Texas A&M and Missouri, it's Arkansas. The Hogs are pretty familiar with the teams that are joining the SEC this fall.
In fact, Arkansas has played Texas A&M more times than anyone else in the SEC -- including Missouri. The two teams' 68 meetings are far ahead of the next-highest total of 50 for LSU. (It's worth remembering that TAMU and Missouri didn't actually share a conference until the Big 12 merger in the mid-1990s.) But Arkansas has also met Missouri more than any other SEC teams aside from Ole Miss(?) and Texas A&M -- and the Razorbacks are only one game behind the Rebels in that regard.
So if you're looking for a reason why the SEC is going to switch Arkansas' interdivision rivalry to Missouri and let South Carolina take on Texas A&M every year, that's it. Well, that and the border the two states share.
That said, Arkansas hasn't played Missouri in the regular season in almost 50 years; the last time they met outside a bowl was in 1963. That was a 7-6 win for Missouri, which bizarrely mirrored a 7-6 Arkansas win 19 years earlier, the last time the teams had met before that.
Arkansas and A&M, of course, have never met outside the regular season. Their series was suspended from 1991 until 2009 after the Razorbacks bolted the Southwest Conference. (So, Aggies fans, you might not have to wait that long until the Texas rivalry resumes.) Since then, the Razorbacks have gone 3-0, just the latest in a lengthy run for Arkansas. In fact, the Aggies have won just five of the last 18 meetings and 10 of the last 37.
The biggest Arkansas win probably came in 1975, when then-No. 18 Arkansas derailed then-No. 2 Texas A&M's undefeated season with a 31-6 upset. The Aggies would get a measure of revenge a decade later, when an unranked A&M team beat the Razorbacks in a game that ended up deciding the SWC title.
No matter what you think of the Arkansas-Missouri rivalry, there's no question that there's plenty of hate left to resolve between Arkansas and A&M. And it's once again a game that matters in more than just the polls.