From what I understand, in the mid to late 80's Arkansas had a desire to move to the Big 8, however, there was no consensus on a 10th team and no desire to stay at a 9 team conference. Also, there were hopes at that point in time that Kansas State might just drop out of the conference, and in that event, Arkansas would be the preferred replacement.
Doesn't it seem ISU and our conference has made just about every wrong decision up until Johnny for basketball and Mac for football?
Every conference decision, lack of institutional support, apathy, etc. Maybe it was just the era. A simple time....
To even be in the discussion as a power school in this Hunger Games Beyond Thunderdome era is sort of amazing.