Matt Jones
Hawgs Sports Network
FAYETTEVILLE -- One quarter of the teams in this season's 12-team College Football Playoff will play against the University of Arkansas in 2025.
The Razorbacks will host Notre Dame on Sept. 27 and will play games at Tennessee on Oct. 11 and Texas on Nov. 22, according to the schedule that was released Wednesday.
The Razorbacks' 11 Football Bowl Subdivision opponents next season have a combined record of 90-43 going into this season's postseason, led by the 11-win Fighting Irish and Longhorns. The Volunteers are 10-2 and lost 19-14 in Fayetteville on Oct. 5.
Texas won 20-10 at Arkansas on Nov. 16.
Nine of Arkansas' FBS opponents in 2025 are scheduled to play in a bowl game or the playoff this season. The exceptions are Auburn and Mississippi State -- teams that lost to Arkansas on their home fields this season and are scheduled to play at Fayetteville in 2025.
The Razorbacks are scheduled to open the 2025 season with an Aug. 30 game against Alabama A&M, a member of the Southwestern OVERSET FOLLOWS:Athletic Conference in the Football Championship Subdivision. Arkansas was originally scheduled to open next season with a game against Missouri State, but that contract was canceled after the Bears announced they would transition from FCS to FBS and asked for a bigger payday.
Arkansas' second game of the season will be its first against Arkansas State University, which will be played Sept. 6 at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock. The Red Wolves were allotted approximately 10,000 tickets for the game at the 54,120-seat stadium that has served as the Razorbacks' second home since 1948.
That game is the final game of a contract between Arkansas and War Memorial Stadium, and Athletic Director Hunter Yurachek expressed uncertainty earlier this year about what the Razorbacks' future partnership with the stadium might look like.
"It has been a great place to play games, but the winds of college football are changing," Yurachek said Sept. 25 at the Hawgs Illustrated Sports Club in Fayetteville. "And so as college football continues to evolve and change, we'll continue to need to evolve and change in the program, and that may include what we do at War Memorial Stadium."
Arkansas steps out of conference to play at Memphis' Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium on Sept. 20. The Razorbacks are scheduled to play their Liberty Bowl game against Texas Tech at the same stadium on Dec. 27.
Memphis is 10-2 this season and will host the Razorbacks for the first time since 1998. The game is part of a 2-for-1 agreement that calls for Memphis to return trips to Fayetteville in 2026 and 2028.
Next season's Sept. 27 game against Notre Dame is also the first in a multi-game series and will mark the Fighting Irish's first trip to Arkansas. It will also be the first meeting between the programs.
The Razorbacks are scheduled to play at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Ind., in 2028, the makeup for a 2020 game that was postponed when the SEC went to a schedule of only conference games because of the covid-19 pandemic.
Speaking on a schedule reveal show on SEC Network, former Alabama safety Roman Harper and former Georgia tight end Benjamin Watson questioned Arkansas' decision to schedule harshly out of conference.
"Arkansas did not give themselves any favors in this season with this schedule," Harper said.
"I feel like Arkansas always has a tough schedule over the last several years," Watson added.
Arkansas' conference schedule in 2025 will include the same teams as this year, just in opposite locations. The Razorbacks are scheduled to host Texas A&M on Oct. 18 in the Aggies' first trip to Fayetteville since 2013. The 11-year neutral-site series between the teams at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, ended this year.
Next season's Texas A&M game will be Arkansas' first against a conference team on campus, marking the third consecutive year the Razorbacks will not play a home SEC game until October. The Razorbacks will play three consecutive home games once they get one, hosting Auburn on Oct. 25 and Mississippi State on Nov. 1.
Arkansas also is scheduled to host Missouri on Nov. 29, looking for a win in the end-of-season series for the first time since 2021.
In addition to Tennessee and Texas, the Razorbacks have road games scheduled at Ole Miss on Sept. 13 and LSU on Nov. 15.
The 2025 season is the last in which an eight-game SEC schedule is guaranteed. SEC leaders have discussed a nine-game conference schedule that, if approved, could begin as early as 2026.
Arkansas has open dates scheduled for Oct. 4 and Nov. 8.
Each team has two off weeks in 2025 for the second season in a row. The number of off weeks is determined by the number of weekends between Labor Day and the conference championship games in December.