Calipari expected to introduce a new NIL initiative called "The LaFamilia Club," per reports

April and May returned negative results for Kentucky Basketball‘s roster management as John Calipari and his staff failed to land any additions from the transfer portal while losing nearly the entire roster from a year ago. Kentucky still has the No. 1 recruiting class from the high school ranks. Still, the Wildcats’ navigation of the new NIL era of college basketball has yet to produce any experienced talent seeking high-dollar deals.

John Calipari knows his original “Kentucky eats first” approach to recruiting the portal isn’t working, and that NIL is carrying the most weight in many of the transfer decisions. So he and the Kentucky program have quietly been working behind the scenes on “The LaFamilia Club,” a new fundraising effort to maintain Kentucky’s gold standard in the sport.

KSR’s Jack Pilgrim was on The LaFamilia Club scoop early and he wrote from vacation a Tuesday morning note on KSBoard to explain how he perceives the new collective. According to Jack and his intel, Calipari’s new initiative isn’t a collective, but a new fundraising model to bring together Kentucky’s top boosters and several of Kentucky’s stars in the NBA.

“In short, it’s a legitimate and legal way to raise money and pay student-athletes beyond traditional marketing avenues,” Jack wrote, noting the club was formed back in January with contributions doubling collectives at other programs.

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Matt Jones is also familiar with The LaFamilia Club and he shared how he understands it to work on Tuesday morning’s radio show. In short, it’s a collective but Calipari isn’t calling it a collective.

“I got word this weekend that there was potentially a change afoot in Calipari’s NIL view,” Jones said. “I’ll give you some of the simple part. Cal decided to–he doesn’t want to do collectives–so in a classic, sort of Cal fashion, he’s doing a collective but not calling it a collective. So he’s getting a group of people together that is what he’s calling LaFamilia Club, and LaFamilia Club are people who will create donations to give to players through the course of the year for appearances.

“It’s a collective, OK,” Jones added. “It’s everything that, like, the 15 Club and Commonwealth Causes are doing.”

By that, he means The LaFamilia Club will pay Kentucky Basketball players for appearances, autograph signings, etc., according to the agreed-upon terms with the club.

“I think the difference is it’s all going to be people that Cal knows,” Jones explained. “But regardless, it’s happening and I think the events of the summer made him decide people gotta give some money now–maybe the push was more in the last week or two. I think this is a really good development.”

Kyle Tucker also joined the Tuesday LaFamilia conversations with a tweet to say, “I’ve gotten some intel from NBA sources that John Calipari is potentially tapping into his former players, among others, on a unique NIL project that has been in the works for months but is picking up steam now.”

We’ll stay tuned for any not-collective, collective updates from John Calipari himself.