Robbie Neiswanger has already posted some comments from Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long, who took part in a news conference this morning to announce that the athletic department was giving $1 million to the university.

  I thought I’d post a few more remarks from Long, who went into detail about the installation, cost and timeline for the new turf inside Reynolds Razorback Stadium. (If you’re like me, you’re probably tired of all the talk about the turf.)

  Still, here is what Long had to say.

  Long said that while the estimated cost of installing a synthetic playing surface was around $1.1 to $1.2 million, he believes the project will cost under $1 million. More than $1 million has been raised, giving the athletic department a bit of cushion room in case there are any complications.

  “The fundraising effort was successful,” Long said. “We have those funds committed, so we weren’t going to put that bulldozer in the ground really until we had those funds secured. And we have them.”

  Long said the struggling economy has resulted in the project costing 30 percent less than it would have been if done a year ago. 

  Long is working with a general contractor to receive bids on the different types of turfs that could be installed in the stadium. He said he anticipates those bids to come in as early as the first part of next week.

  “No blue turf, I can dispell those rumors,” Long said. “No blue turf, red turf.” 

  The plan is still for the turf to be down before Aug. 1, giving the Razorbacks plenty of time to work on the new surface before the start of the 2009 football season.

  “We’ve said to prior to Aug. 1, but I think it will be significantly earlier than that,” Long said, referring to the completion of the project.

  Apparently, the new turf isn’t the only changes in the works. Long didn’t go into specifics, but he said there are several other changes to Reynolds Razorbacks Stadium that are being considered for the upcoming football season.

  “We’re working out somethings for the stadium that we’re not quite ready to unveil at this point,” Long said. “But we’ll have somethings that we hope to do, and again it depends on funding and some of those things. We’re working through that now.”

  Speaking of blue turf, here’s a picture of what Boise State has to play on.