It’s a great time to be a sports fan in Northeast Arkansas, especially one that supports the Arkansas State Red Wolves. Between Thursday, Nov. 14 and Sunday, Nov. 17, there will be seven major college sporting events held on the A-State campus.
Wednesday night, the A-State Women’s basketball team fell to Southeast Missouri State in the weekend’s appetizer, 79-67. Now, the Men’s team will play three home games in four days with a home football game in-between. To add even more fun to the mix, Arkansas State will host three other Division I Men’s basketball games over the weekend.
Here’s how it all breaks down.
Red Wolves Classic
Arkansas State is hosting the “Red Wolves Classic” multi-team basketball event from Wednesday to Sunday. The VMI Keydets, the Idaho Vandals, and the UC Davis Aggies will all visit Jonesboro to participate in a round-robin tournament. The event is the first of its kind in Jonesboro since the “Runnin’ Joe Classic” in 1993.
The event will tipoff with Idaho taking on UC Davis at 5 p.m. on Thursday, with Arkansas State vs VMI to follow. Then, Idaho and VMI face off at 12:30 p.m. on Friday, with the Red Wolves and Aggies tipping off at 7:30 p.m.
All teams will be off Saturday as the Arkansas State football team hosts the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers in a conference game that could determine bowl eligibility.
On Sunday, VMI and UC Davis will tip at 11 a.m. with A-State and Idaho finishing out the tournament to follow. Overall, there will be six games in a span of four days at First National Bank Arena.
Football Hosts Coastal Carolina
The main event of the weekend, however, has to be Saturday’s football game. The Coastal Carolina Chanticleers (4-5, 1-4 SBC) travel to Jonesboro to face the Red Wolves in a much-anticipated Sun Belt bout. The Red Wolves (5-4, 3-2 SBC) are looking to earn bowl eligibility for a ninth-consecutive season, and a win over the Chants would do just that.
The Chanticleers are an up-and-coming team still searching for their first bowl berth since moving up to FBS in 2016. They notched an early season victory over Power 5 Kansas, and earned a conference win over Troy just two weeks ago.
They’ve faced plenty of adversity, though, falling to four Sun Belt opponents thanks to a rigorous conference slate. So far, they’ve traveled to Appalachian State and Georgia Southern and hosted Louisiana and Georgia State. Now, they’ve got yet another tough road matchup with the Red Wolves.
Records and history may point toward an “easy” victory for the Red Wolves to the casual fan, but that is far from the case on Saturday. The Chanticleers are a good, hungry team that has simply gone through the gauntlet that is the Sun Belt East. If they played in the West, their record could be drastically different. A-State will have their hands full.
However, if the Red Wolves continue their offensive hot streak and buckle down on the defensive side of the ball, fans should still expect a victory. Simple mistakes must be eliminated, or the game could quickly turn into another “first quarter vs ULM” situation. In short, if the Red Wolves play their game and don’t let Coastal Carolina dictate the pace, that coveted sixth win will be well within reach.
Kickoff is scheduled for 2 p.m. at Centennial Bank Stadium.
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