Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman took his turn at SEC Media Days Thursday, answering a variety of questions concerning recruiting in the new-age NIL and transfer portal world. The head Hog discussed a ton that had already been covered here on HawgSports this summer, but one of the biggest takeaways was the optimism he showed toward revenue sharing helping the Razorbacks find their footing again.
Pittman discussed the current landscape with the SEC Now crew, saying coaches have more personal responsibility than ever to help guide young people who have just been handed large sums of money. Now, Pittman says, money may not cause as many problems under new the rev-share model.
“So when you do that and you’re invested, and then let’s say our money wasn’t up to speed with some other universities, you lose a guy for $100,000. You lose him,” Pittman said. “They might lose all of us for $100,000 — you have to understand that, too. But (hypothetically) you lose a guy, then not only are you invested a year, two years of a young man, you’re invested in a young man of ‘how do you write a check, credit card, family’ all these things you’re invested in even more now — it hurts. When they walk out, it hurts.
“But you have to have some type of understanding if you can’t financially, or you don’t think — it’s easier if you don’t think they’re worth that kind of money — but if you don’t have it, it’s two totally different separations.
“Well, now with rev-share, we ought to all be the same. And again, I said it before, when we were the same, we went from 4-20 when I was hired to top 20 in two years. NIL came in, now we’ve been 7-6, 4-8, 7-6. I think this will do wonders for the University of Arkansas.”
Later, Pittman admitted to Dari Nowkhah that it’s been difficult to witness so many changes to a tradition-based game, but that he thinks the latest round of changes will swing back to helping the Hogs.
“Hard. You either go forward or you go… I think they’re going to change it, which, they are,” Pittman said. “Something’s going to change. But you’ve got to live in the now every day of what’s available to you right now. That’s why I changed to, ‘Okay, this is available to u, we need to get it’ And then if they say, ‘Well, you can’t have that. Shouldn’t have had that.’ ‘Well, we already have it.’ You know what I mean? And so I think the aggressive part of all the rule changes, we at the University of Arkansas are going more aggressive than what we ever have had whenever the rules change.”
ANOTHER NEEDED CHANGE
Having schools cover the majority of the bill for players is yet another massive change to college football as we know it, but the biggest and most wanted change is still to be determined: When is the transfer portal window, how long is it, and how many times in a calendar year will it be open?
It’s widely speculated, though not official, that we’ll soon be moving to a 10-day window that was originally penciled in for a start date of January 2. Two years ago, there was a 30-day window followed by a 15-day window in the spring. It shrunk to 20 days in December and 10 days in the spring this past year, and coaches would prefer an even shorter one-time window to further reduce the amount of time allowed for money-grab transfers.
Pittman was asked about the consequences of a changed environment, doubling down on the idea that a post-spring portal window makes no sense to college coaches.
“You know, it’s a little bit hypothetical,” Pittman said. “I will say this, I believe that some of our quality head coaches that are great head coaches, it may drive them into the NFL. I do believe that. But I do think we can make changes in what we’re doing right now and keep them in college football. I believe that. The answer is a little bit yes and no.
“I think if we cut down the portal and made it to one (window), I think that would keep a lot of guys interested. You have assistants going to the NFL and all that, too. I think that would keep them more into college ball.
“To me, opening the portal after you have spring ball is the craziest thing in the world. Why would you have spring ball, know your team, then five, six of them leave after spring ball? That makes no sense to me whatsoever. If you give a guy an opportunity to leave, I think that’s great. Go ahead. But it’s got to be somewhere, in my opinion, in early January or it shouldn’t happen at all.”
SOUNDS FAMILIAR…
Our Dead Period Deep Dive was a massive hit this summer, so it was nice to hear Pittman discuss a lot of the things we’ve already established over the summer. One of the biggest topics in Arkansas football recruiting these days is what’s going on inside the state, and Pittman was asked about it while speaking in the main room on Thursday.
“We have to go outside of our state,” Pittman said. “In-state recruiting has changed over the last three or four years because of NIL. So you have to think about the talent, who it is, versus what the pay is expected. So that’s been a little bit more difficult in our state. We like to stay within an eight-hour radius if we can. We’ve expanded that just a little bit, where our kids can come see us several different times.
“Financially with revenue sharing, I think now we’re back on even keel with everybody, which we weren’t … When we were even, we went 4-20 to top 20 in two years. I think the program has a chance to get back up to around those nine-plus wins than where we were before just simply because we have the finances to back that.
“We’ve got a good football team. We’ve got a good staff. We’ve got great facilities. We got a great state of fans at the University of Arkansas, the state of Arkansas. There’s no reason we can’t do it. If I was going to make an excuse, it would be financially is why we haven’t done quite as well as where we were projected my first two years. But I think now with it being even, I look out that the Razorbacks are coming on.”
Pittman also touched on another controversial topic that we’ve discussed this summer: how questions about job security have a greater impact on recruits from inside the state that hear it far more often than out-of-state targets who appear to be unbothered by the situation.
As he did when the questions began at the end of the 2023 season, Pittman pointed to recruiting as his only area of concern.
“I’m going to say this, the only ramifications of someone constantly having you on this list or this list, whatever other list, is recruiting,” Pittman said. “That’s the only thing. It seems to affect us a little bit more in the state of Arkansas because they’re up on the Razorbacks, they see more.
Now, how can we stop that? We win more games. That’s what we can do. Look, most everything a guy brings on him, he brings on himself. Most things that come out, you earn it. Now, you may disagree with some of it, all that. But I’ve earned it, I have. To get off that, we’ve got to win more games.”
