New SEC scheduling model forces Razorbacks to embrace NIL like never before

Honestly, Arkansas is in a unique situation with the novel revenue sharing model as one of its big three sports is already financially taken care of by super donor John Tyson and his group of buddies.

While most schools will allot between 10-20% of its $20.5 million in revenue to its men's basketball team, that's extra money the Razorbacks can utilize during the winter transfer portal period when most impact transfers are on the market.

Most SEC football teams are likely taking advantage of having infinite funds with their NIL collectives' abilities to remain intact by following new guidelines. Yet, there is hope that perhaps things can get back to an even playing field.

Leadership Embraces NIL?

Just this week, Pittman appears to have put his "Blue Light Special" days behind him while publicly embracing the NIL way this week on social media.

"NIL directly relates to success," Pittman said via X. "In order for us to compete we need our fans' support. The college landscape has changed, and we have to continue to thrive in the NIL world. Along with our facilities and coaches, Arkansas Edge makes us competitive with anyone."

Not all blame should be placed on Pittman's shoulders either because his boss, Arkansas athletics director Hunter Yuracheck, is the one who stubbornly fought against paying players one red cent from the onset.

He wanted to use NIL the way it was intended by receiving compensation for having their likeness used in video games, commercials and such. Instead of 'buying teams' like other teams were actively doing, he decided to fight against it which caused Arkansas to slip from a fighter's chance and back to the world of SEC also-ran.

“Collectives are not paying market value, they’re buying teams,” Yurachek said last year at the Little Rock Touchdown Club. “We’ve finally gotten our footing with NIL.”

Well, nearly a year later, things don't seem to be getting any better against increasingly tougher competition. The only way fans can protect the sanctity of the Razorbacks brand is to give blindly and force change of on-field efforts as it seems Arkansas leadership has finally woken up and smelled the greenery of the almighty dollar.

Arkansas must completely immerse itself in the game or willfully enforce its own death penalty because the desire to adapt isn't a concept leadership wants to embrace.

SEC Shoves Back

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey gave the Big Ten and Indiana a huge stiff arm in the scheduling discussion Thursday with a shift to a 9-game conference schedule.

One new concept media are putting a major emphasis on is that SEC members are required to play at least one extra out-of-conference Power Four opponent, or schedule Notre Dame each season.

While most outlets are labeling this as a new concept, Sankey wanted to reinforce a requirement in place since conference expansion in 2012 when Texas A&M and Missouri entered the league.

Hoosiers coach Curt Cignetti went into a one-way shoving match at Big Ten Media Day when asked about his program cancelling a home-and-home series against ACC program Virginia.

"The best two conferences in college football, any football guy that's objective, will tell you are the Big 10 and the SEC," Cignetti said last month. "12/16 SEC teams play 3 G5 [Group of Five] or FBS games. Twelve of those teams play 36 games, 29 Group of Five games, seven FCS games, and one less conference game. So, we'd figured we'd just adopt SEC scheduling philosophy. Some people don't like it. I'm more focused on those nine conference games."

Cignetti's comments don't make sense considering Arkansas has embraced the SEC requirement each year with the exception of 2018-19 when Michigan cancelled its series via e-mail in July 2016.

With such late notice, former athletic director Jeff Long was forced to improvise by scheduling a home-and-home series against Mountain West Conference team Colorado State. The SEC granted Arkansas a waiver due to circumstances of losing such a profitable home-and-home venture.

Since 2012, Arkansas has been compliant with the SEC's scheduling mandate with home-and-home series against Rutgers (Big East 2012-13), Texas Tech (2014-15, 2030-31), TCU (2016-17), Texas (2021), BYU (2022-23), Oklahoma State (2024, 2027, 2032-2033), Notre Dame (2025, 2028) and Utah (2026, 2029).

Prior to the SEC's mandate, Arkansas faced Texas A&M during non-conference play from 2009-11 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington for the Southwest Classic when the Aggies were part of the Big 12 Conference.

Other notable non-conference games Arkansas has played in since joining the SEC include USC (2005-06) and Texas (2003-04, 2008).

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