I don’t collect football stadiums. I don’t keep a list of all the gridiron venues I have visited during nearly four decades of covering the Jayhawks. Yet it occurred to me not too long ago that I had never been to Arkansas.

Hmmm. I had been all over the country – from Los Angeles to Syracuse, from Florida State to Oregon State – on KU football assignments and had never set foot on the campus of a school approximately the same distance from Lawrence as Oklahoma State.

And I can’t count the number of times I’ve been to Stillwater, Okla., home of the Cowboys (and Eskimo Joe’s, the souvenir store with an adjacent watering hole).

Obviously, the main reason I hadn’t been to Fayetteville, Ark., is because the Jayhawks did not play the Razorbacks during that span. In fact, KU and Arkansas have not met in football since 1906. That’s not a typo. The last meeting really was 101 years ago.

I’m not sure why Kansas and Arkansas avoided football competition during the last century. The two schools have met in basketball several times, and the softball and baseball teams have scheduled each other, too.

One aspect is certain. If contemporary college football scheduling philosophy continues for another 100 years, Kansas and Arkansas have about as much of a chance of resuming their gridiron rivalry as President Bush does of endorsing Hillary Clinton as his successor.

Then again, it’s not impossible the Big 12 Conference could merge with the Southeastern Conference some day. Kansas and Arkansas wouldn’t meet every year if they were in the same mega league, but they would have to play football from time to time.

Time was when intersectional battles such as a Big Eight school clashing with a Big 10 school or SEC against Pac-10 were a big deal. No longer. Today it’s all about winning, and what better way to win than to dilute nonconference schedules?

Kansas, for instance, probably has the weakest non-league schedule in the Big 12 this fall, with games against Central Michigan and Toledo, two MAC schools, to go with paycheck-desperate Florida International and Southeast Louisiana.

At the same time, you could make a case for Arkansas having the softest schedule in the SEC. The ‘Hogs’ non-league games will be against Troy, North Texas, UT-Chattanooga and the ubiquitous Florida International.

But enough of that. I’m here to report I finally made it to the UA campus in Fayetteville. Wow. Everything in 80,000-seat Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium seems to bear somebody’s name. Even the entryways on the southwest and northwest sides are named after donors.

To tell the truth, I was surprised I didn’t see the names Walton and Tyson displayed at the massive football stadium because Wal-Mart and Tyson Foods are the major employers in the burgeoning Northwest Arkansas area.

Not that I had to look very far. Bud Walton Arena, home of the basketball teams, and the Randal Tyson Track Center are just down the road.

Razorback Stadium compares with the behemoths of the Big 12, the huge venues at Texas, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas A&M, so it’s probably best that Kansas stay away.

Since joining the Big 12, the Jayhawks’ overall record at the league’s four largest stadiums is 1-13.