Hunter Yurachek calls for help from Arkansas fans to strengthen NIL for John Calipari

Hiring John Calipari is quite the commitment and statement by the basketball program at Arkansas. Now, in turn, AD Hunter Yurachek is calling on their fanbase to respond altogether to that choice with donations to their efforts in NIL.

Yurachek spoke about the name, image, and likeness commitment to Calipari during his introductory press conference on Wednesday. He said that he has spoken with their new head coach on the topic and that they’re in agreement of what it needs to look like. The matter is now about rallying those funds in order to give their new coach the best chance at doing what he does best.

“I will say that Coach Cal and I talked about NIL robustly,” Yurachek said. “We’ve talked about it on the plane.”

“Him and I are on the same page of where it needs to be for us to be competitive. We’ve got some ways to go to get there. Reports make it sound like it is a done deal and the money is in the bank. What I will tell you? That’s not the case,” admitted Yurachek. “We’ve got a pretty good program in place but we’re going to need help from people across this state to make sure that we give Coach Cal the tools that he needs to put a great team on the floor, not only this year but next year and the following year.”

NIL dollars was reportedly a major selling point overall in Arkansas’ case in getting Calipari to leave Lexington for Fayetteville. Per a source that spoke to On3, $5 million annually and an estimate of $6 million will be available from top boosters, including the contributions of the likes of John Tyson, for Calipari. That reported estimate would bring them right amongst the best in college basketball.

Arkansas EDGE is also a significant part of those efforts. They even, on the day of Calipari’s introduction, released shirts to celebrate the hire. Those are selling for $30 apiece with all sales going toward the collective.

Yurachek and Calipari agree about the commitment that needs to be present in the area of name, image, and likeness in order to succeed. That now leaves it to their fans to make that dedication in hopes of making his tenure as successful as they all want it to be.

“Him and I are on the same page of what it needs to be and it’s my job to give him the tools to make sure that he can be successful,” said Yurachek.

Calipari on Arkansas roster: ‘There is no team’

John Calipari is tasked with having to build his first roster at Arkansas from the ground up.

Left with no scholarship players, the new Razorbacks head coach is going to have to approach the transfer portal and high-school recruiting space with the knowledge that he’s going to be starting from scratch.

“I met with the team — there is no team,” Calipari joked during his introductory press conference on Wednesday. “So now I’ve got to — Hunter’s really, extremely confident. But we’ve got to get a roster together and some of it is a little bit of everything. But we will.”

“It may take a little longer because there are kids that put their name in the NBA Draft that are going to go through some of the process, which means, do you wait for that kid? Or do you go take somebody that’s not quite as good? And you’re going to be juggling balls. That’s what we do now.”

Before any of that gets thrown into consideration, however, Calipari laid down his expectations for what he wants out of his initial group at Arkansas.

“If you’re not into basketball, you won’t come here. If you’re smoking, drinking, clubbing,” Calipari continued. “This is about being at a place that is zeroed in on a culture that creates professional habits. And that includes academically. I mean, [at Kentucky], didn’t have any issues. They all finished the term. We didn’t have any PR problems. We had 32 kids graduate, we had six graduate in three years. You can do all that. You can care about the kids and still win.”