Believe it or not, Arkansas State has the only state football team still playing deep into December. The Indians will face Southern Miss on Tuesday in the New Orleans Bowl, misplaced to Lafayette, La. in the first bowl game of the 2005 season and ASU’s first in 30 years.

With ASU actually getting significant press in the statewide media, and the buzz of Central Arkansas moving to Division I-AA, it has sparked thoughts of a new in-state rivalry we could have brewing. I don’t know how open ASU athletic director Dean Lee would be to beginning a football series with the Bears, but I do know it would help Arkansas’ other schools get on the map. I also know Lee loves Adidas more than a fat kid loves cake, but that’s another story. I’m guessing UCA’s AD Vance Strange and coach Clint Conque would be more than happy to play ASU every year. It would give UCA’s already progressing program a bigger slap to the rear end than my high school principal’s paddle routinely gave me in my mischievous pre-college days.

I can see it now; UCA facing not Eastern New Mexico, not the Inuit College of Northern Alaska, but their fellow Division I neighbors to the northeast in the first game of the season at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock. I can’t think of a better way to start the football season every year (although UCA would be at a decided disadvantage as a I-AA team).

Really, does either school have a legitimate reason not to play each other?

The University of Arkansas’ reasoning behind not playing ASU in any sport has always been the piggies would have nothing to gain. If they win, they were supposed to; and if they don’t, it would be a catastrophe. ASU could use this argument to decline playing UCA if they wanted to, but that would seem to be a bit hypocritical. The newly-crowned Sun Belt champions, with their program now on the rise, could gain much from playing UCA.

Last I heard, ASU, like many other small Division I-A football programs, was having trouble reaching attendance minimums set by the NCAA. A game at War Memorial Stadium against another state school would surely be one of the biggest crowds either team would play in front of all season. And UCA, as a I-AA team with no mandatory attendance minimums, would likely grant the Indians the right to claim the attendance at the neutral site as a home game.

For one day, UCA and ASU could grasp the majority of the sports section in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. The content might not concentrate so much on Houston Nutt’s brilliant IQ and breaking news that Mitch Mustain just changed his underwear. This season, UCA and ASU have both put their names into the public domain with good seasons, but if this rivalry would form, there would be a lot more people talking about the Bears and Indians.

The state’s longest-running rivalry came to an end this year when UCA defeated Arkansas Tech for likely the last time. The sun has set on that rivalry, and now it needs to rise on another. The state needs an exciting rivalry within our political boundaries. Although most Arkansas sports fans will continue to hate the Longhorns forever, the Hogs no longer play the Texans anymore and the state could use something else to get excited about.

I’ll say it right now; I think we’ll see the series between the two schools come about by 2010. Get your tickets now, because this will be a big deal.