John Calipari Said What? Must-Hear Quote About NIL Era Goes Viral After Arkansas Video

Arkansas men’s basketball coach John Calipari expressed a desire for the NCAA to adjust its eligibility rules when talking Saturday about aging rosters in the era of NIL and revenue sharing.

Calipari was asked Saturday what he thought about recent upsets including Gonzaga’s Friday blowout of Kentucky, Louisville’s Saturday upset of Indiana and Iowa State’s dominant Saturday win over Purdue.

“There are a lot of older gentlemen with beards playing basketball in college right now,” Calipari answered after the Razorbacks’ 82-58 Saturday win over Fresno State. “There are. So, the one that’s crazy, and the guy comes in, and he’s waving to his kids up in the seats. And you’re like, ‘Wait a minute. The guy’s got two kids. He’s still playing college basketball.’

“Crazy thing. He’s using NIL for his first wife’s alimony, and now he’s still playing college basketball. Are we nuts? So now you have these kinds of games, and these kind of scores.”

Calipari went on to estimate that the Razorbacks will be “one of the three youngest teams in the SEC” this season.

The head coach told reporters that creates mismatches with older teams both on mental and physical levels.

“Last year every team was old in our league. They were old,” Calipari said. “And so now, you’re going to have those kind of things. And you’re also going to have a team, like a Fresno, beat somebody because they’ve got all grad students, seniors, and their average age is 25, and your average age is 19 or 20.

“So, until we fix the eligibility thing, this is what it is.”

Average ages in men’s college basketball have been trending upward for the past decade.

The average age of starters in the Sweet 16 rose from 20.8 to 21.6 between 2019 and 2025, per Lev Akabas of Sportico.

Auburn’s starters had an average age of 23.2, which made the Tigers rotation older than the starting lineups of five NBA teams at the time, per Akabas.

That trend could become even more dramatic if the NCAA considers giving athletes an additional year of eligibility without a redshirt, which The Athletic’s Sam Khan Jr. and Ralph D. Russo reported in October some football and basketball coaches were expecting in the near future.

The NCAA answered with a memo in October stating that current eligibility rules giving athletes five years to play four seasons would remain in place at least through the 2026-27 academic year, per Khan and Russo.