Cofield ushers in new era as Razorbacks GM, but nobody knows how

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — When new Arkansas general manager Remy Cofield finally had a press conference he didn't waste any time describing his mission Thursday.

“It’s just pick up the pieces where things need to be picked up,” Cofield said, his NBA-honed precision now trained on a new battleground.

Cofield’s hiring in March marked a bold move by Arkansas. The university pulled a 12-year NBA executive from the Boston Celtics, where he’d most recently directed scouting and managed the G-League affiliate in Maine.

Now his challenge is nothing less than redefining what it means to run a college athletic department in the age of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL), the transfer portal, and now the House v. NCAA settlement that will allow schools to pay athletes directly for the first time in history.

When it was over, nobody got specific numbers but a general description that sounded like his main job is to negotiate with players.

Not that it wasn't attempted to get specifics from the media. At times it sounded like they didn't like the answer so they tried asking it in a different way.

Cofield wasn't giving up any numbers. It's hard to bellieve he didn't know them, but he wasn't going to be the one handing them out.

Considering he's a department of just one person, the net result of a press conference that lasted 23 minutes is he's what Razorbacks coach Sam Pittman said he needed to be.

“Since we’ve been here, I’ve kind of been the good guy and the bad guy,” Pittman said in the spring. “They’re gonna go to him, so that buffering system is going to help me tremendously. It’s personal. Guys are gonna leave, you understand why, but then it becomes personal. We need to take that part out of the game.”

New GM Remy Cofield will have different roles with different sports. He will be the money man for Sam Pittman. He's yet to talk to Cal, pic.twitter.com/S4MBVC5GLv
— Steve Sullivan (@sully7777) June 26, 2025

Cofield is more than willing to play the “bad guy,” insulating coaches from the emotional fallout of NIL negotiations.

“I don’t mind having tough conversations and I don’t think that’s a bad thing, either,” he said. “Allow me to be the one to have those tough conversations and say, ‘We can’t do this. We can’t do that.’ Or sometimes, deliver some good news. ‘We can do this. We can do that.’”

The bottom line to the whole thing sounds like Cofield is in a position where everybody is figuring it out as they go along.

“Coaches were being tasked with handling more and more off-field issues with NIL and transfer portal,” Cofield said. “If you need connection to somebody that I may have, let's figure it out. In my role it's just trying to be a connector in a lot of ways, making sure every staff has what they need from a [revenue] share standpoint.”

This transformation is happening against the backdrop of the House v. NCAA settlement. Approved in June, the settlement paves the way for schools to share up to $20.5 million annually in revenue directly with athletes, an amount expected to rise each year.

This is not NIL in the old sense where third-party collectives cut deals with athletes. It's the university’s own money, divvied up in a new, still-evolving system.

“We can’t talk about percentages and how we allocate those funds currently,” Cofield said. “I do know we will be making sure all of our sports teams have a way to compete at a high level. We want to make sure that the teams that are participating in our rev share at a high level that they have what they need as well.”

It hasn't taken him long to find out the main thing for Razorback fans is winning games.

“Our fanbase wants us to be extremely competitive,” Cofield said. “We’re going to get the right players for Arkansas, that’s the most important for us. We’ll compete with some of the money issues that are going to be out there.

A lot of the cap stuff that we’re going to see going forward is going to level it out a little more so that we can compete from a money standpoint.”

With all of the changes in college athletics, even the guy with the job being the buffer isn't really sure what it is he's going to be doing or how the whole thing will work.

“We’re all kind of learning right now and we don’t have a lot of answers,” he siad. “We’re trying to get ahead of it and be proactive in that space.”

Then there are the players. Cofield will probably end up being the guy talk to the most outside of the coaches for their own sport. Where he falls in the recruiting situation is a mystery, too

“It starts with the players, we’ve got to get the right players for us,” Cofield said. "I just make sure every staff has what they need from a revenue share standpoint. But also brought up to speed on the new rules that are coming through.”

"Come to Arkansas, you'll figure it out when you get here." #WPS

I asked Arkansas' new GM Remy Cofield what his sales pitch would be to any athlete who is thinking about being a Razorback, check out his full answer below ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/f69YprEYM9
— Courtney Mims (@MimsCourtney) June 26, 2025

Exactly how they do that is still to be determined.

“We’re going to get the right players for Arkansas,” Cofield said. “That’s the most important for us. We’ll compete with some of the money issues that are going to be out there.”

Apparently just about everything for the Hogs these days is left to be figured out.

The fans will figure out how to react. That will be determined by the number of wins put on the board.