FOOTBALL GAME NOTES LINK:  /documents/2012/9/27/SAU-UAM_FB_Game_Notes.pdf?id=16

MAGNOLIA, Ark - Southern Arkansas and Arkansas-Monticello's game on Saturday will be the 88th meeting between the teams, with the Boll Weevils being the Muleriders' longest-standing football rival, dating back to their first contest in 1913.  The 2012 meeting has added significance as the game will now be forever titled as the “Battle of the Timberlands”, with the winner taking home a newly-created traveling trophy.
 
The teams first met in their respective third seasons of existence, and for a period of time, faced each other for 55 consecutive seasons over their 87 meetings.
 
The Boll Weevils concluded their sixth win of the first nine games in the series with their largest margin ever, a 46-0 shutout in Monticello in 1924.  SAU returned the favor the next season with its largest margin of victory, a 91-0 blowout in Magnolia that started a streak of three wins to even it at six wins apiece.  The series has only one tie, a scoreless stalemate in El Dorado in 1933. 
 
Southern Arkansas' longest string of wins was an 11-game stretch from 1967-1977, including a 43-0 blanking in its final game of the 1972 season that gave the Muleriders a share of the Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference championship.  UAM owns a pair of five-win streaks, from 1962-1966 and 1992-1996.  Following the 1996 game, SAU won the next seven until Arkansas-Monticello pulled out a 33-31 victory in Magnolia in 2004.  The 1999 game was initially a 23-20 Boll Weevil win, but UAM had to forfeit it because of the use of an ineligible player.  Following the 2004 game, Southern Arkansas bounced back with four straight victories, 52-21 in 2005 in Monticello; 18-15 in 2006 in a game that had to be played at Magnolia High School's Panther Stadium; and 38-21 and 23-16 victories in Monticello in 2007 and 2008, respectively, giving the Muleriders 11 wins in 12 games.  In 2009 and 2010, the teams competed at a neutral site in the Boomtown Classic in El Dorado, with Arkansas-Monticello winning both, a 17-6 decision in the inaugural classic in 2009 and 28-23 the next year.  SAU snapped the two-game skid last year in Magnolia, 58-23.
 
SAU leads the series by a 51-35-1 margin, holding a 22-16 advantage in games played in Magnolia, 26-17 in Monticello, and 3-2-1 in six games in El Dorado.