Arkansas's pregame experience ranked second-to-last in the SEC

From beginning to end, Arkansas football games are an entire spectacle. Festivities start hours before kickoff, and celebrations can go deep into the night on game day. But according to oddsmakers, the SEC pregame experience in Fayetteville isn’t all that enjoyable.

They rank Arkansas pregame experience second-to-last in the SEC, besting only Vanderbilt. Each destination was judged using an algorithm based on four aspects: location, tailgating, experience, and family sentiments. While it makes some great points about the location's accessibility, the other three were problematic. 

Location

The worst thing Arkansas has against it is how inaccessible it is to get to the stadium. If you’ve been to a home game in Fayetteville, you know exactly how exhausting it is to walk that hill up if you park in the lots south of Bud Walton Arena. But if you don’t have a parking pass, it's significantly harder to get to the stadium.

There's parking near Baum Walker, but that’s over a mile away. The good thing is that the university buses fans across Martin Luther King Blvd, so they get to the stadium safely. But it can take 30 to 40 minutes to go that distance based on how busy the traffic is. So, ranking Arkansas last in the location category is understandable.

Tailgating

But as far as tailgating goes, it’s not a bad scene, but it's not the best. However, there's more than enough room to park and enjoy a crisp fall day with a beverage and a grill. The only negative thing about Arkansas's tailgating is how dispersed the parking is, making it not a cohesive event. But accessibility has already been judged. Giving Arkansas the fifth-worst tailgating experience for accessibility is punishing it more than once for the same thing. Regardless, the does make the experience worse, but not "fifth-worst in the SEC" worst. On the other hand, the last two aspects were egregiously misranked.

Entertainment

The entertainment factor was judged on the bar and restaurant scene around the stadium However, the top-2 in the rankings have nearly 30-minute walks to the nearest bar scene. Texas came in at No. 2, but downtown Austin is the closest place to celebrate a win.

According to Google Maps, it's a 26-minute walk from the southernmost point of the stadium to the nearest restaurant/bar. The best entertainment value was awarded to LSU, but those establishments were even further away at 30 minutes! Both destinations have a larger variety, but a half-hour walk isn't exactly "near" the stadium.

Arkansas — the fourth worst — is only about 20 minutes from the nearest bar on Dickson Street, and that's if you take the route Google suggests. There are more than enough things to do on Dickson Street, but more importantly, fewer people are roaming the area, too, especially compared to downtown Austin.

Family Sentiment

Last but not least is Family Sentiment. Arkansas's ranking doesn't make sense at all. They rank Arkansas as the second-worst in the category. What part of Arkansas's pregame experience isn't safe and entertaining for kids and those with kids? There's Hog Town and Victory Village to walk around for fun, live music, food, and sometimes inflatable for the kids.

There's more than enough to do and see, but again, it seems like Arkansas suffered from something other than the category itself. Maybe Arknasas's 4-8 season had to do with the low ranking. Obviously, that makes the overall game-day experience worse, but that has nothing to do with what the article is about, which is the pregame experience.

Arkansas has never had the best pregame experience in the SEC, and probably will never hold that title. However, it is severely underrated.