Ask Mike: Portal Madness, Hog Hoops in NYC & Changes Coming in College Baseball

Q. Tuskvarnna says: I’m disabled so going to the games is difficult. I have to save money to go. I feel the players have no loyalty to the fans. I left pro football because of free agency and now the college players have left me. It feels personal.

A. You are old school like me. I still remember when professional free agency became a thing. I turned away from pro sports at that time because my attitude was you are one of those one in a million athletes who makes it in pro sports, you’re getting paid good money to play a game you love and big crowds show up to watch you do it. The idea that you’d leave a team whose fans love you to get money money from a rival team, jump from say, the Cubs to the Cardinals or vice versa, that was unthinkable. Now it’s happening in college sports.

The fans are the forgotten factor in this. When you are a Razorback and the fans love you for that but suddenly you say, “Pardon me while I become an Ole Miss Rebel, wish me the best because it’s a business decision???”

No way. You’ve dumped on them.

Q. Sherlock.Hawg says: It’s clear that most players don’t share that same pride in the helmet. As long as the money is so large, I doubt that will ever change. It’s no wonder some coaches are getting out. I’m concerned that college football fandom might start to fade. However, I heard on the radio last week that college football is more popular than ever.

A. We keep taking about this. A change is coming with revenue sharing. Supposedly one of the reasons the portal is so nuts right now is that NIL agents see this as their last big chance to cash in. By next spring the emphasis will be on paying players directly out of an athletic department’s budget which will have a cap. Teams won’t be outbidding each other which means less money for NIL agents.

Q. that’llduepig says: There seems to be a habit of players leaving the football team for the past few years now. The evidence points to the coaches are giving brutal assessments of their performances for the year. What do you think?

A. The evidence points to NIL agents who get a cut of the deals they negotiate. They want more money for themselves so they shop their clients (players) around to other schools. It is true that in some cases, when coaches are forced to negotiate face-to-face with their players to keep them, the possibility exists that some of the players might get offended by coaches who are taking a bottom line in the negotiations. In my opinion when you put football coaches in that position you might not like what you’re going to hear. They might not be all warm and fuzzy in those negotiations.

Q. Hotdogger asks: What would be the value of having a general manager and is this the trend for schools going forward with nil being the focus in college athletics? Pitman mentioned the possibility of hiring a general manager.

A. In theory it would be the GM who would decide how much money each player deserves however those GM’s are still going to rely a lot on a team’s coaches in trying to decide the value of each player. The biggest benefit I see is that you don’t pit coaches against players when these money discussions start. Coaches can stick to coaching and let a professional negotiator bargain with the players.

Q. Marty Byrde’s proxy wants to know: Did Kutas and Braxton play the system, keeping their redshirt to save for the next team? I hate to even think that could be the case but this is all uncharted waters.

A. You’d have to know them personally to answer that question accurately but that’s how a lot of Arkansas fans see it and they are mad about it. Neither player has indicated that these fans are wrong.

Q. Kevin says: This mess of the football program is not the fans fault. Like usual, the administration was not prepared for NIL. The last few years they have been scrambling to catch up. Now they want fans to pony up for a bad program.

A. To me that’s an incorrect evaluation of what’s happened. Arkansas followed the NCAA rules on NIL deals when they first came out while Tennessee and some other schools filed a lawsuit and got a restraining order placed on those rules. Once the athletic department staff at Arkansas began to realize what was happening they started their own NIL collective but they were behind. Also the biggest issue they ran into is that a lot of average Arkansas fans rejected the notion that they should have to pay up to buy players and keep them here. To them high dollar boosters should do that.

If you have a bad program what’s the quickest way to turn it around? Not by firing the coaches and starting over but by providing more money for bigger NIL deals to get better players. This may be changing. As I’ve previously indicated, revenue sharing is designed to reduce NIL deals. We’ll have to see if it works that way.

Q. 20gauge says: I don’t think revenue sharing is the saving grace that everyone thinks it is.
There’s a $20.5 million cap by what I’ve read. Arkansas is probably going to share this across all sports/athletes for the most part. This will still leave us woefully behind on actual NIL Unless there are rules connected with the revenue sharing. What is Arkansas plan for sharing the revenue with athletes?

A. As I understand it, the lions share of revenue sharing money at Arkansas will go to football. Also NIL deals will be separate from revenue sharing which comes out of a school’s athletic budget. This is not finalized but I continue to be told that NIL deals will be reduced in size because they will become true endorsement deals, not money provided by a booster just to get a player to come to your school.

Q. To basketball where PennHOG says: Hog fans showed up at Madison Square Garden last Tuesday! I was blown away and so were the Michigan fans. They had no idea that Arkansas fans would out number the Michigan fans. I was so proud to be a fan.

A. Apparently a part of that big crowd was made up of friends and family of Boogie Fland who, like another Razorback point guard named Kareem Reid, grew up in the Bronx. Also you have Razorback fans everywhere so when the Hogs show up in a place like New York they’re going to the game. It’s also pretty clear that some Hog fans from Arkansas traveled for two reasons: It was a big game in a classic venue and if you’re going to visit New York, December is the perfect time because of the way the city is decked out for Christmas. There was some indication from Coach Cal that playing in the Jimmy V Classic in New York in December might become a semi annual event that Hogs fans can look forward to.

Q. EddyLynn says: The Razorbacks finally got to play in front of a full house in Arkansas. It took playing in central Arkansas to do that. Should Bud Walton Arena ticket holders be embarrassed?

A. I don’t think so. If the situation was reversed and the University was located in Little Rock but played one basketball game a year in NW Arkansas, I think you’d have a sell out crowd here. Also Arkansas has filled up Bud Walton once so far under Cal. The place was pretty much full for the Kansas exhibition game and once SEC play starts it will fill up again.

Q. Speaking of that game….Hawgredneck says: Kudos to Yurachek for his decision to play other in-state teams. Saturday UCA got to play on a big stage. They played their tails off. Cal complimented them. Coach Shulman said good things about the Hogs. I thought it was a win-win.

A. It really has worked out well. The thing that Frank Broyles worried about, creating more fans for in-state teams and maybe fewer Hog fans, has not happened. Also he worried about the possibilities of embarrassing upsets to the Razorbacks in various sports. That hasn’t happened either. The biggest benefit from this is to funnel guaranteed money for playing the Razorbacks to in-state schools instead of out of state schools. The goodwill on that alone is worth it.

Q. Pigsfeat wants to know: How is the new roster limit number in college baseball going to help/hurt? Coach Van Horn didn’t seem to like it.

A. It’s a mixed bag. College baseball goes from 11.7 scholarships to a maximum of 34 which is good but that’s also your roster limit. Also schools don’t have to provide 34 scholarships and there’s no indication at this time of just how many extra scholarships Van Horn will receive.

Then there is this, Van Horn typically starts out with as many as 50 guys on the roster in the fall and reduces that to 40 in early December after evaluating each player. With the limit of 34 that is coming in the spring of 2026 there’s less room for error in evaluating players and plugging in players when injuries occur.