Even before the introduction of the NIL into college sports, rank-and-file Arkansans wondered why the deep-pocketed families of the Natural State didn’t provide more to the Razorbacks.
And while part of the reason is because there’s a reason you’re rank-and-file and they’re deep-pocketed, the question made a bit of sense, really. Home to Walmart, JB Hunt and Tyson – three Fortune 500 companies – Arkansas athletics never had the air of a rich team, in money, or a literal rich team, in talent.
Until John Tyson stepped up to help reel in John Calipari.
Calipari’s introduction as Arkansas basketball coach Wednesday night was a spectacle, the kind of which Razorbacks brass hopes to see much more of. Even the former Kentucky coach himself proclaimed he hadn’t seen anything quite like it. Fireworks, strobe lights, cheerleaders, a catchphrase already set to go. Arkansas fans haven’t been that excited in years.
The biggest applause was reserved for Tyson, though. Emcee, Razorbacks play-by-play broadcaster Chuck Barrett, called Tyson out specifically by name and the magnate received an uproarious standing ovation to which he responded by standing, as well. When Calipari’s interview with Barrett began, one of the first things out of the coach’s mouth was praise for his friend who made the connection between Calipari and athletic director Hunter Yurachek.
By no means are things over, though. Calipari doesn’t have a roster. He hasn’t coached a game. In fact, to get the sort of roster he wants, money has to put into NIL. Yurachek made two cattle calls to the middle-class of Arkansas fan, ostensibly along the lines of “We need your help.”
“I will say that Coach Cal and I talked about NIL robustly,” Yurachek said. “We talked about it on the plane. Him and I are on the same page…. We’ve got some ways to go to get there. Reports make it sound like it’s a done deal and money in the bank. What I will tell you is that’s not the case.”
He’s right in the sense Arkansas needs to pump more money to its student-athletes, all of whom left the Razorbacks basketball team this offseason. The only question may be why the expectation is for the people forced to sit 100 feet from the dais Wednesday night are the expected and not the people sitting 20 feet from it.
Except Tyson. Arkansans believe he’s done his part already.