Only in today’s world of college athletics — with its warp-speed changes, conditional loyalties and ever-present demands for more revenue — would the Little Rock Trojans athletics department choose to fold a winning hand.
Yet in moving away from the Ohio Valley Conference and into the United Athletic Conference, as the Trojans announced in early October, Little Rock assured itself of better opponents, easier travel schedules and more stability — at least as much as can be promised in the current climate.
“When we first went to the OVC, we were very pleased to be in that conference, but opportunity knocks,” said Christina Drale, chancellor. “We saw an opportunity, and we took it.”
In walking away from the OVC, Little Rock is walking away from some of the biggest sporting successes in its modern era. Over just a quick three-year run in the conference, Little Rock captured a conference championship and NCAA regional berth in baseball, advanced to the NCAA wrestling tournament, and won a share of the OVC Commissioner’s Cup, awarded to the top athletic program in the conference.
Drale and Frank Cuervo, director of athletics, are willing to trade all that in for a shot at something more. UAC membership represents an uptick in competition, though not so much that Little Rock will be punching above its weight class. The move will also spark a rivalry with UAC member the University of Central Arkansas in Conway. The two schools are separated by a straight 30-mile shot down Interstate 40.
“We really believe in what we’re building,” said Jeff Bacon, UAC commissioner. “The market of Little Rock is tremendous, a great addition for us geographically.”
A longtime athletic conference commissioner and former attorney, Bacon has worked to stay a step ahead of the changes currently throttling the world of Division I athletics. He took the helm of the Atlantic Sun Conference in 2023 and then remained in charge after the A-SUN’s football programs merged with the Western Athletic Conference to form the UAC.
“It’s a little new,” Bacon said. “We’re building the ship as we sail it to an extent, which is pretty exciting, quite frankly.”
Bacon said Little Rock was not necessarily a target when the new conference emerged, and Cuervo said he did not take over at Little Rock with a mandate to move, but the two bumped into each other through a mutual colleague 14 months ago and, through several conversations, realized they were in alignment.
Chief among the factors in that alignment was a desire by both to stay ahead of the curve during an era where traditional athletic conference alignments are dissolving and being rapidly remade. The Pac-12 all but crumbled a little more than a year ago, going from 12 members to two as the conference found itself on the outside looking in while schools scurried to secure more lucrative conference deals and television rights. The Big Ten, meanwhile, has reimagined itself as an 18-team coast-to-coast behemoth with designs on supplanting the also-expanded Southeastern Conference at the top of the competitive heap.
With rules allowing for multiple student-athlete transfers plus revenue sharing for the athletes, the power-conference chaos has trickled down to smaller Division I programs. In Bacon, Cuervo bumped into a kindred spirit who shares his drive to stay one step ahead.
“There wasn’t necessarily a specific discussion about, hey, we really want to look for a new conference partner,” Cuervo said. “However, one of the things that I made sure to mention in a proactive way was that the landscape is changing so rapidly that the footing underneath your feet is constantly moving. I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t monitor the situation and look where there might be good opportunities for us to land.”
It is hard to believe that Little Rock was still a member of the Sun Belt Conference less than five years ago, withering under a football-centric culture and finding itself increasingly set apart from its athletic rivals. Moving to the OVC, where all football-playing schools compete in the Football Championship Subdivision, healed those wounds immediately.
Yet even as the Sun Belt became too big for its lone nonfootball school, it at least felt familiar, offering a natural rival in Arkansas State and opponents with a regional flavor. The OVC, with members ranging from Missouri to Indiana to Illinois to Kentucky, felt off by comparison, even as Little Rock racked up victories at a clip rarely seen in the Sun Belt.
Plus, while there was no official pushback, student-athletes were left feeling weary after road trips as long as 6 1/2 hours to Southern Indiana and almost 10 hours to Morehead State in Kentucky. Outdoor spring sports also had to put up with weather delays and cold temps as they traveled to locations where spring had not necessarily sprung, while fall sports were traveling to spots where fall had long since given way to winter.
“We’re not going up to Illinois in October or November,” said Kelly Farrell, head soccer coach, “so overall, I think it’s a great fit for us.”
While not having to pack for cold weather is nice, it is not the change in climate that has Little Rock’s coaches excited. Three UAC schools — Tarleton State, Abilene Christian and Texas-Arlington, the only other nonfootball school — are located in Texas. The Lone Star State carries a reputation for high school football, but its size, climate and sports-mad culture makes it a fruitful recruiting area for any college athletic program.
Not only does UAC membership give Little Rock’s coaches more reason to mess with Texas; it hands them a ready-made and vital recruiting pitch. Recruiting out-of-state athletes can be dicey, seeing prospects seemingly ready to commit until they are faced with playing and attending school away from family and friends.
When Little Rock officially joins the UAC in July, Trojans coaches can promise there will be trips home for its Texas athletes.
“The travel is going to be a lot easier on my players’ bodies,” said Darrell Walker, head men’s basketball coach. “There’s no doubt about that. The travel is going to be a lot less stressful. We’ll have a chance to put our foot back in Texas, which is a huge state for some recruiting.”
Though the decision to join the UAC was made above their heads, Walker and Steve Wiedower, women’s basketball coach, may be the fulcrum upon which the move succeeds or fails.
Basketball is the main draw for schools that do not offer football, and Little Rock showed its commitment when the Jack Stephens Center was built two decades ago. Even though the Stephens Center has aged gracefully — it remains one of the top facilities in the OVC — Cuervo is pushing for more, making a separate building for basketball operations a pillar of a far-reaching fundraising initiative unveiled in September.
Cuervo went so far as to call the UAC a “basketball conference” after announcing the change, and it is not hard to follow the breadcrumbs. Successful basketball teams that play in good facilities draw more fans and more interest, and that translates directly into more boosters and alums willing to reach for their wallets when it is time for a fundraising campaign.
Facing regional teams at a higher competitive clip can only help.
“We want to play the best competition we can,” Wiedower said. “I think playing in a conference with a little higher [rating percentage index] ranking is going to make us even better when March gets here.”
Little Rock’s basketball coaches are not the only ones with an eye on the changes. Head golf coaches Austin Eoff and Jenna Birch have seen their programs gain momentum while in the OVC, leading Cuervo to push for the construction of a 24-hour indoor golf training center. Success in the UAC will help convince donors that contributing to the training center will put both programs over the top.
Perhaps nobody has more skin in the game than Chris Curry. The 12th-year head baseball coach became a household name in central Arkansas over the spring, leading the Trojans to a shock run through the OVC tournament and taking victories off No. 20 Dallas Baptist and top-ranked — and eventual national champion — Louisiana State University in NCAA regional play.
Cuervo and Nate Olson, director of athletic communications, made a hard push during that postseason run, scheduling watch parties and a welcome-back pep rally for the Trojans upon their return to campus.
Both events brought in fans by the truckload, and Cuervo took advantage, saying he wants to build an on-campus baseball facility using land on the south end of campus donated by Coleman Dairy. Curry, who has been open about the need to move on from Little Rock’s outdated off-campus baseball facilities, signed a five-year extension in October, a clear sign that he believes the funds for a new stadium will come.
The UAC brings the promise of warmer weather, better baseball and a fertile Texas recruiting scene for Curry and his staff. All that adds up to a higher profile for the baseball program and, with that, more donations for a baseball facility.
All the Trojans have to do is keep winning games.
“I think it’s a great move,” Curry said. “I think it’s very forward thinking by Frank and Chancellor Drale. We are dead in the center [of the conference], so either side you go, the drive is about the same for us, and with a third of our team being from Texas, that will increase even more. It could be a two-bid league, so that’s a good thing, and I think we’re prepared for it.”
The coming years will bear out just how prepared the Trojans truly are. If Little Rock is able to duplicate or improve its success within the OVC, the athletics department could be poised for a historic turning point in competitiveness, revenue and athletic facilities.
Nobody ever won much by standing pat.
“It’s a whole new game for sure,” Cuervo said.
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