Since Baylor missed out on being selected to the College Football Playoff, the Bears have been looking at strengthening their non-conference schedules.

Baylor does play nine conference games in the Big 12, which is one more than the ACC, SEC, and Big Ten play (Big Ten moves to nine in 2016). However, their current non-conference lineup is littered with teams such as Rice, SMU, UTSA and numerous FCS schools.

The Bears do have a future home-and-home series scheduled with Duke and recently added one with Utah and a three-game series with Louisiana Tech.

Those moves are a step in the right direction, and today news came out that Baylor is continuing their push for better non-conference opponents.

At a luncheon with the Touchdown Club of Houston this afternoon, Baylor head coach Art Briles indicated that “there’s a chance” they could play the Arkansas Razorbacks in Houston in 2019.

During Q&A at Houston Touchdown Club luncheon, Art Briles said “there’s a chance” Baylor could play Arkansas in Houston in 2019. — Sam Khan Jr. (@skhanjr) July 17, 2015

Baylor and Arkansas first met on the gridiron in 1904 and have played a total of 70 times. Three of those matchups came before the two schools were members of the Southwest Conference.

The Razorbacks currently lead the series 35-33-2, but the two haven’t played since Arkansas final season in the SWC in 1991.

As College Football Talk indicated earlier today, there would need to be some schedule shuffling in order for Baylor and Arkansas to play in 2019 in what would most assuredly be a season-opening game.

Baylor’s 2019 non-conference slate is currently full with Incarnate Word (Aug. 31), UTSA (Sept. 7), and at Rice (Sept. 14). The easiest move here would be to move Incarnate Word to another season or pay the cancellation fee.

Arkansas is currently scheduled to host Michigan to open the 2019 season in the second half of a home-and-home series that begins in Ann Arbor in 2018. This game could simply be pushed back a week or two the same season.

Whatever happens, it would be great to see Baylor take on an SEC team in the regular-season.

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