Early in the first quarter of Arkansas’ 63-31 drubbing at the hands of Ole Miss, fans got a little taste of the downhome wisdom of Razorback head coach Sam Pittman.
“We don’t have the money that a lot of the schools do,” the fifth-year coach told ESPN in a pregame interview on the field. “Now we’re getting ready to get it in revenue sharing. But we don’t have the money, so we went Blue Light Special a little bit with our O-line and from what I understand, they went Louis Vuitton over there.”
ESPN announcer Mark Jones went on to equate Arkansas’ offensive line with Walmart and Ole Miss’ defense with Louis Vuitton. This felt like a bad way to start the day.
Arkansas proceeded to let the SEC coach with the most punchable face in the league run up the score and the Ole Miss players have a fire extinguisher dance party celebration in the third quarter. My brother’s wife asked, “Why is Ole Miss able to throw a touchdown on almost every play? Shouldn’t Arkansas guard that Watkins guy?” I had no response.
Blind Arkansas fans were yelling at the screen that Arkansas should look into playing some defense against Ole Miss receiver Jordan Watkins. Watkins finished the day with 5 touchdowns and 254 yards for the Rebels. What? I was told Ole Miss’ best receiver in the country was out with an injury.
During the decisive second and third quarters, Ole Miss thoroughly outplayed Arkansas at every position. Little wonder that just a few days earlier, Pittman told the same Louis Vuitton-related joke but this time in reference to his defensive line.
“They’re the Louis Vuitton of defensive lines and we’re like Walmart,” he said Wednesday night on his weekly radio show. “Blue Light Special, you know?”
I’d have to give this particular analogy here a sub-passing grade given it was Kmart, not Walmart, that did such flash sales. But for the game itself, I would go with an “F” for the at-home watching experience.
Maybe that’s a little harsh. I did appreciate the Hogs’ offense for continuing to fight with backup quarterback Malachi Singleton playing the entire second half.
After the game I tried to sell myself on the idea we were bitten by the injury bug, and if you had offered me the chance to be 5-4 at this point of the season in August, I would have taken it.
This was cold comfort.
Examining Pittman’s Pregame Comment
Rather than dwell on the loss I spent Saturday evening mulling over Sam Pittman’s pregame comments. For those not following at home, the “revenue sharing” he referenced stems from a lawsuit. As one would expect. Nothing is as American as College Football and lawsuits. Other than maybe Buc-ees, the rest stop version of Tennessee coach Josh Heupel.
Grant House and Sedona Prince v. National Collegiate Athletic Association, et al. is a settled class action lawsuit brought against the NCAA and five collegiate athletic conferences. To settle the lawsuit, the NCAA agreed to pay $2.75 billion – that’s billion with a B – in back pay to former athletes and give schools the option of funding up to 22% of their annual revenue to athletes for the next ten years. This amounts to about $20.5 million annually for schools to distribute across their sports.
As you might have expected, the named plaintiffs in this lawsuit were a former Arizona State swimmer and TCU women’s basketball player. Not that it matters, but I found it interesting.
This settlement may signal the end of the NCAA as we know it. It is not clear how many schools will be able to afford this revenue sharing agreement with their student-athletes. There is speculation it may cause some bigger college athletic programs to leave the NCAA and go their own way.
Schools may also struggle on how to divide the money under the specter of Title IX, which decrees financial aid granted to men’s and women’s sports be roughly equal based on the school’s demographic makeup. Will this affect the school’s ability to direct these revenue sharing funds towards their two major sources of revenue producing sports: football and men’s basketball?
Does this revenue sharing level the playing field, at least among major programs? I don’t see how it limits NIL opportunities for college athletes. I do wonder if this means some University of Texas football players will no longer get the free use of Lamborghinis, however.
What it Means for Arkansas Football
This brings us back to Sam Pittman’s statement before the game. Arkansas is historically on par with Ole Miss in football. But that’s not the case when it comes to NIL funds, an area where Ole Miss has significantly outpaced Arkansas in the last couple years:
The big disparity here explains why Ole Miss finished first in the 247Sports 2024 transfer rankings while Arkansas finished 26th. It’s an issue on both sides of the line and across the field.
Particularly galling for Hog fans was former Arkansas player Chris “Pooh” Paul Jr. leading the Rebels in tackles on Saturday. Neither Arkansas or Ole Miss has ever been confused with blue-bloods in the SEC and yet the Rebels have clearly leveled up in a way that didn’t entail cheating or call girls.
Watching former Razorback running back Rocket Sanders carry South Carolina to a victory over No. 10 Texas A&M after Arkansas vs Ole Miss didn’t help erase the bitter taste from my mouth. I generally root for the Rocket, but it was painful to watch a former Arkansas player have an SEC Player of the Week kind of game. Bittersweet in a Big Head Todd and the Monsters kind of way. God I love that song.
I do wonder if Sam Pittman knows something we don’t about the future of Arkansas’ ability to get players in the transfer portal. Has athletics director Hunter Yurachek given him some assurance next year the Hogs will be the ones shopping at designer stores in the transfer portal? Arkansas may need to get closer to the level of success Ole Miss found in the transfer portal to close the talent gap with programs in the top half of the SEC. Would that be enough to alter the trajectory of the program and have Arkansas football fans believing a trip to the College Football Playoffs is within grasp?
I suspect it will not.
To quote the Bible, “For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.”
With the exception of an Ole Miss-like surge here and there, the rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer. At least when it comes to college football teams.
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See the story around a Louis Vuitton handbag and Braylon Russell:
Sadly, Arkansas fails to even gain entry into the latest SEC Shorts about teams suffering beatdowns on Saturday:
More coverage of Arkansas football and Arkansas vs Ole Miss…
