By Isaac Bourne, Sports Editor
The 97th edition of the Battle of the Ravine did not disappoint last season, bringing excitement and drama into a storied rivalry that has stood the test of time. Through the movement of divisions and conferences, Ouachita Baptist and Henderson State University have remained bitter rivals. The unique premise of one team crossing the highway to the other team’s stadium is almost unheard of in college football. “It’s such a unique deal,” remarked Chris Babb, head of Ouachita Sports Digital Network in an interview in 2022. “The visiting team dresses in their locker room and walks across the road; there’s just nothing like it.”
Multiple attempts have been made to get the game picked up by a major TV station, but many have wished for the biggest station of them all, ESPN, who hosts their College Gameday at the site of a featured matchup for the week, and while many would be surprised as to why they would visit a DII school, Babb is adamant. “From our perspective, they’ve gone to a DIII school, an HBCU, and an FCS school (for the event), so a DII school is bound to be next,” he presumes. These past few weeks have been the exact confirmation that the schools need.
With Gameday host Rece Davis saying in an interview post-event that he was pitching the rivalry to the higher-ups at ESPN, fans in Arkadelphia held their breaths this past weekend, hoping that the rivalry would finally get its spotlight.
And…nothing.
At 3:13pm on Sunday afternoon, College Gameday posted to X that they would be making a trip to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to watch Notre Dame versus Pittsburgh. The Iron City, home to, of course, famous host of the show, Pat McAfee, seems as if it was chosen by the former NFL kicker himself, with very little choice given to those who care about what gives college football its true essence: rivalry and uniqueness.
The numbers back up the event’s importance as well, as the OSDN broadcast of the game from last 2023 has garnered over 12,000 views on YouTube, while the broadcast of the game from last year posted by Henderson Athletics has over 13,000. No matter which way you see it, this game draws viewers, and an ESPN broadcast of the game would just bring more popularity to a game that is already special in the hearts of Arkadelphians.
“We know it’s special and unique, so it would be great if the people on the national level could see it too,” Babb said. After 2022’s game brought a two-score comeback and an overtime victory to the Ouachita side of the street, the two sides have traded contests year-by-year, with last season’s game going to the Tigers in a one-score win over at Carpenter-Haygood field.
It would not be the first time this rivalry has seen itself in the mainstream media, as College Gameday has given lip service to the rivalry multiple times, and Sports Illustrated published an article on the game back in the Fall of 2019. While restrictions on the time of the season may be a turn-off for the channel, seeing as DI games this late in the season may have higher stakes, generating greater stories for College Gameday, the stakes of this game stack up just as high. Out of the past ten matchups between Henderson and Ouachita, seven of them have featured teams with playoff aspirations with just a single team in the way.
Despite years of begging, and now weeks of actual confirmation turning into naught just to appease the wallet of a former NFL player, Arkadelphia still finds itself pleading for a show that seems to only care for big-name power conference schools instead of what makes college football truly great. When the fans’ cries get loud enough, and power conference schools get boring enough, we will be waiting, ESPN, to give you what true culture and identity looks like down here in Southwest Arkansas.
