Even though it hasn’t been officially approved, the NCAA’s historic House settlement is already being felt at Arkansas.
As early as next year, schools across the country are expected to be allowed to directly pay athletes in a revenue sharing system that could total more than $20 million for those that fully opt in.
It won’t be a requirement, but Razorback Foundation executive director Ryan White indicated that the 34 teams in the Big Ten and SEC — including Arkansas — would participate.
“You don’t have to do it…but we’re going to do it,” White said in a recent interview on the Razorback Daily podcast. “I’m sure everybody in the Big Ten is probably going to do it. For everybody else, I don’t know. But it will ultimately separate the haves and have-nots further.”
However, that doesn’t mean the Razorbacks just have $20 million lying around to distribute to their athletes next year.
According to its latest NCAA membership financial report, Arkansas generated more than $167.3 million in revenue, but also had $166.5 million in expenses. That means it had only $813,900 left over as profit.
The Razorbacks will need to figure out how to multiply that by about 25 next year when they begin making revenue-sharing payments to athletes.
“I need to find levers to increase revenues and decrease expenses,” Arkansas AD Hunter Yurachek told the UA Board of Trustees last month, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
First Sign of Looming Changes at Arkansas
That need has started a domino effect of decisions by the UA. They may be subtle, but they’re there if you know where to look.
Perhaps the first sign of those looming changes came when Arkansas “declined to budge,” as the Springfield News-Leader put it, from the $500,000 it agreed to pay Missouri State for their season-opening non-conference game in 2025.
The Bears wanted to re-negotiate for more money because they’re moving up to the FBS and such non-conference games typically garner a payout three three times as much.
Rather than fork over any more money, the Razorbacks stood firm and forced Missouri State to cancel the game, collecting a $150,000 fee in the process. Then they replaced the Bears with Alabama A&M, another FCS school which will likely cost about the same to play.
Not only did Arkansas avoid increasing its expenses by not re-negotiating the contract with Missouri State, but it actually made some extra money because of the buyout it received.
Impact on Bud Walton Arena Plans
Another domino effect of the looming revenue sharing that has flown under the radar involves planned improvements to Bud Walton Arena.
Last summer, the UA Board of Trustees approved the architect and contractors who’d be in charge of the renovations to the home of Arkansas basketball, another step forward in a project that could cost between $50 million and $100 million.
When John Calipari was hired in April, Hunter Yurachek told reporters that the money for renovations would come from a “capital campaign.” However, buried in his answer was a hint of something brewing that could add a wrinkle to those plans.
“We have to make sure that right now investing in bricks and mortar may not be the best decision as opposed to investing in our student-athletes,” Yurachek said. “So I’ve really got to balance those two options.”
Yurachek could have meant several different things when he said “investing in our student-athletes,” but in today’s age of college athletics, that often means NIL — and, beginning as early as next year, revenue sharing.
Sure enough, those issues have been thrust to the forefront of the Razorback Foundation, the long-time non-profit fundraising arm of the UA. As a result, executive director Ryan White admitted the Bud Walton Arena renovation plans are now on the “side burner.”
“We’ve actually put that capital campaign on the side burner because there are more pressing issues right now that have come up,” White said on the Razorback Daily podcast. “We’ve got a plan and all of a sudden now we’ve pivoted and now we’re focusing on NIL getting that right, getting the (revenue) share component right.”
To be clear, this does not mean the Razorbacks have scrapped their plans for the 31-year-old arena.
Originally, they were hopeful to have everything completed by the start of the 2026-27 season. However, with fundraising efforts now focused on NIL and revenue sharing, there’s a chance the timeline gets pushed back.
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Listen to the full interview with Ryan White on the Razorback Daily podcast at the 13:00 mark below:
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