Van Horn Deserved Every Bit of Raise From Arkansas For What's Lacking In College Sports

FAYETTEVILLE — The town of Stanton, California, where Dave Van Horn was born is over 1,500 miles from Fayetteville, Arkansas.

But Fayetteville has become a home for Van Horn, who played college baseball for the Razorbacks in 1982, served as a graduate assistant at UA from 1985-88 and has served as the head coach of the Hogs since 2003.

Now, he is trying to hunt down a College World Series crown that has eluded both himself and Arkansas for decades.

With the news of Van Horn's raise to $2.1 million on Tuesday — he was already under contract through 2031, though his new deal also keeps in Fayetteville until then — it's clear the 65-year-old isn't in a hurry to leave Arkansas. He said as much on a Wednesday appearance on the Chuck and Bo Show.

"I'm not looking to go anywhere else, obviously now," Van Horn said, "And I never really was. I'm glad this is over with and we can just move on and not think about this type of stuff... I would say it kind of finalizes some things.

"There's been a few things down the road. Really since 2015, '14, there's been more than a few. All I ever wanted to do was stay here and coach the Razorbacks. It all worked out. I'm where I want to be."

Loyalty is understandably rare in the sports world nowadays, especially with seven figures revolving around every top-tier collegiate coaching job in the country.

Few coaches stick around for longer than a decade at their respective schools or professional teams in the modern era of sports — if they are not fired for cause, they usually seek greener pastures or more green paper.

There's nothing inherently wrong with such a mindset. It's understandable. But it makes loyalty that much more admirable and makes the kind of money Van Horn is now making feel so much more deserved, given that he's stuck around at Arkansas for nearly a quarter-century.

In NIL era, Van Horn has to stay on his toes

Several things have changed during the 23 years that Van Horn has been at Arkansas.

Baum-Walker Stadium is now a palacial venue for college baseball. The Foghorn's that sat behind the ballpark for years just recently closed. Players have come to Arkansas and ended up in the Major Leagues, while the Razorbacks came just one pop fly away from a national championship in 2018.

Perhaps the biggest change for Van Horn and Arkansas during that span is one forcing every head coach and athletic director in the country to drink out of a fire hose as they navigate it: NIL and the revenue sharing era.

Speaking of loyalty, it's even more rare among players nowadays. Largely gone are the days of snagigng a highly touted high school recruit and developing them over four seasons.

Instead, freshman make grand announcements on social media to inform fans of their intent to return for their sophomore season, provided they were paid what they feel they were owed.

"It's been quite a challenge," Van Horn said. "We knew this was going to happen probably four years ago. We were watching other sports like basketball and football and how it was going down there. We knew it was going to get to baseball. We didn't see it to this extent, the finances. If you only knew. It's a lot. It just keeps creeping up.

"It can't sustain itself. All we wanted to do is to be able to compete."

Van Horn went on to say that all Arkansas wants is a shot against schools that are able to raise more money and have more resources to do so. He said in June that Arkansas baseball now has the resources it needs to win.

What the Razorbacks also have is the right coach for the job. Disparage him all you want for a lack of championships, you'll be hard-pressed to find a better coach in college baseball than Van Horn, and even more difficult will be finding one as loyal to his school and as determined to bring his team a title.

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