In 2011, former Razorback basketball recruit Archie Goodwin stated he made a “business decision” in choosing Kentucky over his home state Hogs. That line of reasoning didn’t fly over too well with a lot of folks.
Fast forward a dozen years and fewer people have qualms with the idea of money being central to why a student-athlete would choose one school over the other.
Goodwin was one of the first one-and-done talents from the state of Arkansas, but nowadays that one-and-done culture extends beyond college basketball and into college baseball and football as well with the advent of the transfer portal.
In football, transfers like Feleipe Franks, Drew Sanders, Tre Williams, John Ridgeway and Jadon Haselwood step into a Razorback uniform for a year, show out, and then move on and hardly anybody bats an eye.
Their reasoning for choosing Arkansas over other schools in the usually includes knowing coaches on staff and/or relishing the opportunity to start and get a lot of snaps in the SEC as an audition for getting a foot in the NFL.
Even in the age of NIL, which of course often factors into the decisions of recruits regardless of background, transfers coming to Arkansas rarely put money front and center as part of the reason for their arrival.
Arkansas transfer recruit Doneiko Slaughter, a 6-0, 190 cornerback who started for the Tennessee football team over the last two seasons, is different in this regard.