This is the same group of people who have always said that playing Arkansas between Alabama and Ole Miss is the reason Nutt and Arkansas have dominated State through recent years.
If you can use the logic that focusing on two rivalry games creates a sandwich game with Arkansas or a let down/look ahead game with Arkansas, why is it unrealistic to think that a countdown clock to the last game of the season could in no way have a similar effect? Not saying it does, but you can't use that logic as an excuse for the Arkansas game anymore if you're going to say having such a big focus on a rivalry game wouldn't have any effect on other games.