While last week’s University of Arkansas event centered on the hiring of a Naismith Hall of Fame basketball coach, there seemed to be a bigger-picture statement to the rest of the SEC and to Razorback football coach Sam Pittman.
That statement: Mediocrity is unacceptable.
The basketball Razorbacks advanced to the NCAA Elite Eight in 2021 and 2023, but the 1996-2024 period of Arkansas basketball is defined mostly by underachievement.
In 1978-95, there were four Final Four appearances and the 1994 national title. Razorback athletic director Hunter Yurachek wants a return to that level of consistent national contention, and that’s why Arkansas was so bold in its quest to bring Calipari to Fayetteville.
Prediction: At a first-season pay of $7 million, the 65-year-old Calipari will coach Razorback basketball for at least five seasons. There will be at least one Final Four run within that five-year window.
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Bud Walton Arena will be packed for every Calipari game and rocking in the same way that it did when Nolan Richardson and Corliss Williamson were the kings of ’90s Arkansas basketball.
There’s no way Calipari would have taken the Arkansas job without assurances that his NIL budget is as healthy as any in college basketball. He is in the process now of using his reputation and Arkansas’ money to build a dynamic roster.
Athletes are aware of the history of Calipari-coached players in the NBA draft: at UMass, Memphis and Kentucky, Calipari’s lifetime totals include four overall No. 1 picks, 41 first-round picks and 27 top-15 picks.
Arkansas has wealthy, generous donors and an engaged fan base. The university seems to have an aggressive plan for this NIL era of college athletics, and the Arkansas people seem willing to spend whatever it takes to be really good in every sport.
Addressing a Bud Walton Arena crowd of 7,000 during last week’s Calipari pep rally/news conference, Yurachek said, “(Having) played a significant role in our ability to hire Coach Cal – I am deeply appreciative to Mr. John Tyson.”
Tyson is the 70-year-old chairman of Springdale-based Tyson Foods – a company that employs 24,000 Arkansas residents. The Oklahoma State people were always vocal in their recognition of T. Boone Pickens, but the Arkansas fans’ reaction to Tyson was striking.
The crowd roared for 45 seconds and some of the fans chanted “John! John! John!” This outpouring of affection wasn’t for a coach or athlete, but for a donor who provides jobs for northwest Arkansans and has the influence and money to be a difference-making friend to the Razorback athletic department.
After Eric Musselman left Arkansas to become the Southern Cal basketball coach, it was Tyson who connected Yurachek and Calipari’s agent. That led to dialogue that eventually involved Calipari, and by April 7 the deal was done.
Tyson’s longstanding friendship with Calipari was “an incredible resource for me,” Yurachek shared, “to better understand Coach Cal and what might attract him to the University of Arkansas.”
“John Tyson and his family are from here in northwest Arkansas,” Yurachek continued, “and Warren Stephens and his family from central Arkansas – (and they) joined forces to make certain we could offer the type of package that would (bring) Coach Cal to Fayetteville.”
Stephens is the chairman, president and CEO of Stephens Inc., a financial services firm in Little Rock.
The estimated net worth of John Tyson and Warren Stephens is $6 billion.
Members of the Walton family – the Walmart family – also are known to have given huge amounts of money to the University of Arkansas. The heirs to Walmart founder Sam Walton’s fortune reportedly have a combined net worth of more than $200 billion.
If Yurachek has decided that it’s important for Arkansas to be great in basketball, it wouldn’t make sense to accept average results in football. That’s why the 2024 season is so important for Pittman, who is 8-14 in his last 22 games.
The same money that gave Yurachek the ability to attract Calipari – it also could give Yurachek the ability to make a heavy coaching change for the football program.
Arkansas hasn’t been a football national champion in 60 years and hasn’t been a football conference champion since 1989 in the Southwest Conference.
Through 32 years of Southeastern Conference membership, the Razorback program had 14 losing seasons, eight head coaches and only three seasons of at least 10 wins.
“These (Tyson and Stephens) families have helped us set the table to make this historic (Calipari) hire possible,” Yurachek told Arkansas fans. “But I know their expectation and their hope is that people across this state will join in and make sure we are able to continue to provide the tools needed not only to have success in men’s basketball, but the tools for us to continue to have the success we have enjoyed across our 19 sports programs.”
“Tools,” of course, is a synonym for money.
Check the current national rankings: Razorback teams are 2 in baseball, No. 11 in softball, No. 12 in men’s golf and No. 9 in women’s golf.
Calipari is about to fix men’s basketball, and, one way or another, Yurachek will elevate Arkansas football to a more prominent status in the SEC.
Sources like Tyson, Stephens and the Waltons, along with fan donations to the Arkansas Edge NIL collective, should position the Razorback athletic department on the same level of NIL wherewithal as schools like Georgia, Texas A&M, Texas, Southern Cal and Ohio State.
This is what the University of Oklahoma people are about to learn. Yes, membership in the SEC is prestigious. Yes, the Sooners will make a lot more money in the SEC than they got in the Big 12.
From an NIL standpoint, however, OU will have to spend like crazy to be competitive in the SEC.
OU will have to spend like Arkansas is about to spend.
