John Calipari rips college sports in a scathing rant

John Calipari is entering his 35th season as a college basketball head coach, but he is not at all a fan of the way things are going in college athletics.

On Wednesday, the Arkansas Razorbacks head coach Calipari spoke with the media ahead of the “Primetime at the Palace” event at Bud Walton Arena. In the interview, Calipari rattled off a rant about the state of college sports, and he used examples from his coaching staff and roster.

"Right now, we need something to give us some semblance of order and some guardrails," Calipari said. "And there'll be people against it, that think there should be unions, they should be unionized. Agents should have a free hand to do what they want.

"They talk about, 'Well what about coaches?' I'm gonna say this; I probably shouldn't. Nine of my players make more than my assistants, and the other three make more than all my staff. And we are not one of the highest payers. We're just not.

"Then you could say, 'What about you?' I've been doing it for 40 years. Started as a volunteer, two years as a part-time assistant. I've kind of done OK at different programs. So, yeah, they're paying me. But how about this? All the coaches on this campus in every sport made less than the rev share, which is $22 million, and it's much less. So the players are getting more than the coaches.

"I just don't understand who could be against it."