If Texas Bill Passes, Recruiting Lone Star State Gets Much Tougher for Razorbacks

NIL changes will raise cost of doing business, back Arkansas into recruiting corner

Author:
Kent Smith
Publish date:
Feb 23, 2023 4:26 PM EST

In this story:

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Recruiting in Texas is most likely about to get a lot harder for Arkansas.

Should Texas House Bill 1802 soon pass, it will open the door for anyone who is 18 years old and competing in a UIL sport (that's the Texas equivalent of the AAA), to receive NIL deals while in high school provided he or she also meet the grade requirements to be eligible for UIL competition.

On its face, it's a rather innocuous bill.

A brief read of it paints a picture of the school quarterback making an ad telling everyone in town that after the game he's hungry for a hot slice of Jimbo's Pizza or the town's top softball player letting everyone know that she's been saving for college at the corner bank since she was 10 because he grandpa told her how trustworthy they always are and they've got great rates too.

But everyone knows that college sports and boosters like to take the wholesome notion out of pretty much anything. There's technically a rule in this bill specifically for people like that.

(j) No individual, corporate entity, or other organization may:

(2) use inducements of future name, image, and likeness compensation arrangement to recruit a prospective student athlete to any institution of higher education.

It sounds real serious until you realize that the NCAA has similar rules and everyone has seen how that's worked out. Plus, once a player signs with a school, he or she can make all the cash one might desire.

That means that defensive back everyone has been wanting now needs to be on the payroll before Christmas if that signing is going to happen. If the money's not right, then there's still time for that athlete to pull a Jaden Rashada and demand a release to go elsewhere.

It also puts Arkansas on the backside of a business arms race. For instance, Pine Bluff native Torii Hunter owns a few barbecue joints called Tender Smokehouse in the Prosper, Celina, Frisco area of far north DFW near the home offices of the Dallas Cowboys, but you're talking one tiny possible link in not only one of the richest business areas in America, but also some of the most fertile recruiting grounds in all of football.

There are hundreds of businesses owned by graduates of Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma and SMU splattered across the flat urban sprawl of North Texas

Yes, there may very well be more Arkansas fans and native Arkansans in Texas than currently living in the state itself, but when it comes to business ownership that can compete for influence in the high school game across the reaches of Texas, it's a drop in the bucket compared to the local schools.

There's a lot more "Yeah, I've got a buddy who owns the most profitable car lot in all of Texas down in College Station" off the record conversations to be had than "Yeah, a friend of mine owns luxury apartments in Fayetteville" discussions that definitely aren't inducements of future NIL compensation, but actually are.

And without that influence under this new proposed bill, an already steep climb in trying to lure Texas athletes to Fayetteville could be on its way to becoming it's own Mount Everest.