Arkansas Online

UAPB’s rivalry to pause with Mississippi Valley

By I.C. Murrell

Editor’s note: This is the third of a five-part series previewing the football season for the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and the Southwestern Athletic Conference.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Doc Gamble was always told since joining the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff coaching staff the school’s main rival was Mississippi Valley State University.

“When I first got to the campus in 2018, everybody was telling me it was two things you need to worry about, which were homecoming and Mississippi Valley,” said Gamble, who was promoted to head coach in April 2020. “We’re going to have homecoming all the time, but we won’t have Mississippi Valley all the time.”

Separated by 148 miles and a river that runs through the same part of the country, the Delta’s two Southwestern Athletic Conference schools have hooked up in a spirited rivalry that has seen UAPB take a 27-24-1 series lead all-time, including wins in the last two meetings.

For the first time since 1995, however, the Golden Lions-Delta Devils series will be dormant. The pause can be attributed to the SWAC’s new scheduling rotation with the addition of Bethune-Cookman and Florida A&M universities.

“It’s all because of the realignment,” said Gamble, whose Lions beat the Devils 24-17 last

April after Tyrin Ralph returned a punt 75 yards for the winning touchdown with 1:54 left.

“We don’t play Valley and we don’t play Jackson State, which is right up the road. We won’t play Jackson State again until 2023,” he said. “To me, every game is a rivalry game for us, especially in conference.”

That’s the point Gamble drove home when asked during ESPN3.com’s broadcast of SWAC Media Day this week about a chief rivalry for UAPB, which begins its 25th year in the conference.

Each SWAC team will play all five opponents within its six-team division and three teams in the other. For the 2021 season, UAPB’s Eastern Division opponents are Alabama A&M, Alabama State and Florida A&M universities.

Alcorn State University, located 213 miles southeast of UAPB in Lorman, Miss., moved into the Western Division, which includes UAPB, Prairie View A&M, Texas Southern, Grambling State and Southern universities.

When the Lions and Devils square off again is not for certain, but Mississippi Valley State Coach Vincent Dancy said it may be another four years before that happens.

“It shocks me that we don’t play a school that’s literally two hours down the road,” Dancy said. “That was a little discouraging and disheartening that we don’t play UAPB because we look forward to playing UAPB every year. But, adding two new teams — two new good teams, Bethune-Cookman and FAMU — only brings the competition up.”

Valley’s cross-division opponents in 2021 are Southern, Alcorn State and Prairie View. The Southern game will be held Sept. 26 in what’s called the Delta-Bayou Classic in Jackson, Miss.

A 10-year schedule of games has been established using a rotation, said Jason Cable, a senior associate SWAC commissioner who handles football scheduling. He did not detail how the rotation works, but he added UAPB and Valley will meet within the next decade.

“There’s not a formula that we use,” Cable said. “We took in consideration the travel, since Florida A&M and Bethune-Cookman have come into the conference. And we also took in consideration the rivalry games, but I understand about UAPB and Valley.”

In-state rivalries are popular in the SWAC, given there are two teams each in Texas, Louisiana, Alabama and Florida. UAPB is the only Arkansas team in the league and Mississippi has three SWAC teams, the other being Jackson State University, Dancy’s alma mater.

UAPB will reunite with an old Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference foe in the University of Central Arkansas on Sept. 18 in Conway and face the University of Arkansas for the first time on Oct. 23 in Little Rock, but likely none of its rivalries has been as consistent or closely called as Valley.

Nonetheless, Gamble said: “We’re looking forward to playing everyone that’s on the schedule.”

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