By Trey Wallace

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If Arkansas wants to compete for championships in college football during the NIL era, it seems they’ll either have to play in the gray areas—or simply accept staying in their lane. While a number of programs are thriving thanks to revenue-sharing and outside NIL opportunities, the Razorbacks are falling behind. That reality pushed athletic director Hunter Yurachek to sound the alarm about football during his appearance at the Touchdown Club on Monday. If Arkansas is going to compete, they will have to do so in muddy waters. No, these aren’t my words. “There’s really two major paths you have now in college athletics,” Yurachek explained. “You have the revenue sharing path, which we have figured out, and you have legitimate name, image, and likeness (NIL) where just like a professional athlete, if a college student athlete has a value to their name, image, and likeness and a for profit business product or service wants to engage that student athlete to help them promote their business product or service for profit, that’s legitimate name, image, and likeness. “If we can operate within those two lanes in college athletics, we would be in a really, really good spot. But we have some schools that have decided to find a third lane, which I will call illegitimate NIL … So you have to decide as an athletic director, are you gonna get out in this lane that you know you’re not supposed to be in and operate without the highest level of integrity, or do you wanna stay in these two lanes? And that’s where the rub is coming right now in college athletics.” Why Spencer Danielson’s Message On Charlie Kirk, 9/11, And Leadership Matters Beyond College Football In short, Yurachek is accusing other schools of pushing the boundaries to pay athletes under the table. Shocking, right? Welcome to college athletics. And let’s be honest—are we really going to pretend Arkansas hasn’t bent the rules in some way to land recruits or transfers? Acting like schools weren’t front-loading deals before July 1, when the House settlement took effect, is naïve. Oklahoma AD Pleads With Fans To Support Upcoming NIL Revenue-Sharing When They Already Spend Enough The Razorbacks have benefited from player payouts in baseball and basketball. It just seems to be a problem now—because football hasn’t reaped the same rewards. Arkansas Won’t Compete For Titles, If They Don’t Venture To The Dark Side If we peel back the curtain on this situation, I understand where Hunter Yurachek is coming from, but it doesn’t make things better for Sam Pittman and the football team. When you are telling people that you aren’t equipped to fight for titles, you’re essentially waving the white flag. Ok, so how are we to fully gauge where Sam Pittman is right now as the head coach of the Razorbacks? According to Yurachek, they are doing just fine in baseball, and with John Calipari’s basketball team. “I think we’re set up to win a national championship in men’s basketball moving forward,” Yurachek mentioned. “We know we’re set up to win a national championship in baseball moving forward, and I think we’re set up in several other sports to win a national championship. Football, where we are right now, we’re not set up to win a national championship. I’ll just be brutally honest with that. “But I think we’re set up to compete really well in the SEC, especially now with the new revenue sharing model.” Translation: Arkansas football can compete—but not at the highest level. That’s hardly a rallying cry for recruits or fans. It sounds more like waving the white flag. While I understand what he’s saying, Yurachek should’ve held back on making an example of how they are doing it the right way, but at the same time lowering expectations for football. If the AD is setting the bar this low, then why not just sign Sam Pittman to a safe contract extension? After all, you’re not aiming for national titles anyway. So congratulations, Razorback fans: according to your AD, football is too poor for the College Football Playoff. But don’t worry—at least there’s a shiny new video board going up at the baseball stadium.