University of Arkansas Athletic Director Hunter Yurachek (top left) speaks with Gary George (lower left) on Wednesday during the Hawgs Illustrated Sports Club luncheon at Home2 Suites in Springdale. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Andy Shupe)
University of Arkansas Athletic Director Hunter Yurachek was not messing around during his appearance at the Hawgs Illustrated Sports Club on Wednesday at the Home2Suites by Hilton.
During a lively 28-minute question-and-answer session with host Matt Jones, Yurachek took on the topics of name, image and likeness, upcoming revenue sharing with student-athletes, the addition of Bobby Petrino to the football staff, Saturday’s football game against Texas A&M, pending renovations to athletic facilities and much more.
Yurachek did not dodge, evade or fill the air with frivolous “coach speak,” addressing those topics head on. Right from the jump he addressed the remarks he made last week in Little Rock, when he said the upper echelon of the SEC was spending about double the amount Arkansas has in NIL funds. He cited the example of Ole Miss having roughly 5,000 members in its Grove Collective compared to Arkansas having roughly 1,000 members in its Arkansas Edge Collective.
I was asked a question about NIL and what I thought about it as an athletic director, and I think if you’ve followed me for seven years I’m nothing but honest,” Yurachek said. “They asked me the question how I feel about NIL, and I think I responded it was awful. And it is awful. But as the athletic director at the University of Arkansas, it doesn’t mean that I don’t embrace NIL. Because we’re not putting that genie back in the bottle. It is here to stay.”
Yurachek said the Razorbacks have had very generous donors provide financial gifts into the six and seven figures.
“But I’ve had to go to those same people for three consecutive years and ask for those six- and seven-figure gifts,” he said. “What we’re trying to do is have more of a grassroots campaign across the state of Arkansas, where we can have some recurring income into our collective, Arkansas Edge.”
Yurachek said those remarks have spurred more interest in Arkansas Edge and he didn’t mean to offend by asking for $100 per month.
With the settlement of the House vs. NCAA lawsuit reportedly on the brink of a resolution, college athletics must also be prepared for revenue sharing with their players.
Yurachek was asked how that settlement, reportedly in the range of $2.8 billion, will impact the NIL game.
He gave the example of breaking NIL into three pieces of pie: 1.) What he called “legitimate” NIL, which started on July 1, 2021, which consists of student-athletes receiving compensation for their name, image or likeness; 2.) The collective piece, where donors pool resources to pay for players; and 3.) Revenue sharing.
“So July 1 of 2025, if the House settlement is approved, we can take roughly … $22 million that we can share from our department of athletics revenues that can go straight to student-athletes,” Yurachek said.
“Our hope is that the internal revenue-sharing will take the place of the collectives. It will never take the place of regular NIL. That will always still be there. We’ve got to get rid of this middle section, the collectives, OK?”
Yurachek said if the collective part of the NIL game does not go away, “It’s going to be the same teams that you see right now ranked in the top 10 that will consistently be ranked in the top 10. It’s not going to change.”
Asked if he thought the collective part will go away, Yurachek responded, “It’s going to take some really strong presidents and chancellors and athletic directors to hold their coaches accountable to that going away.”
Yurachek told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that if revenue sharing comes in as expected during the next fiscal year, the University of Arkansas would have to prepare for an extra $22 million to $23 million to cover its annual athletic budget, which is at $174 million this year.
Yurachek also said NIL concerns have caused some facility renovations or expansions, such as for the softball and soccer programs and Walton Arena, to be put “on the side burner, not the back burner.”
Walton Arena is in need of deferred maintenance in the next three to five years, Yurachek added, “but we need to let this NIL piece settle, and I can’t take on more debt service with our department of athletics budget.
“The arena renovation will happen at some point in the future, but it’s not as imminent as we had once thought.”
Yurachek said he has been encouraged by the partnership of football Coach Sam Pittman with Petrino through four games.
“First and foremost, he’s been great for Coach Pittman because he’s been a great complement to him,” Yurachek said of Petrino. “I think what Sam missed last year a great deal was someone with head coaching experience sitting in the meeting rooms like he had in Barry Odom as his defensive coordinator for the first three years he was at Arkansas.”
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