Yes, it is on purpose. It's the same thing every year when we play them. Ask SabanFan about saying R-Kansas. He'll tell you in so many words that there's more people that say it this way than you think.
http://libraryoflibrary.com/E_n_c_p_d_Arkansas.html The name Arkansas is a French pronunciation of a Quapaw word meaning "land of downriver people". The pronunciation "arkansaw" was made official by an act of the state legislature in 1881. Leave it to the French to get it wrong........
i think SF already said he wasn't one of those bug people....or something like that. i am sure he referred to etymologist as bug people...he makes me laugh on occasion.
It's a northern Ohio (midwestern) thing. I lived there and went to school there. I've heard others there pronounce it that way. There are some pretty strange pronunciations of words. Here's one for you. "Push" is pronounced "poosh." First time I heard that I had to have it repeated several times before I got it. That was in SE Ohio, on the border of WV.