Pittman May Know Little Secret Out on NIL or Just Hoping

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The veil of secrecy around this whole name-image-likeness illness throughout college athletics may be hitting Arkansas, too. Since there is no transparency on the whole thing, it was interesting to see Sam Pittman's sudden reversal talking about it Monday.

"I look at this as an opportunity for us to change our team," Pittman said when asked about the announcement Monday he'll be back next year. "Keep the ones that are good players for us and good kids and change our team, give us a chance to do that. I think financially we're going to have the money from NIL to do that. When all that happens, I think we can field a really, really good football team."

Wait, what? In less than a week, the Razorbacks have gone from getting out-bid for players over NIL to finding a pot of gold at first reading of that. Look closely. Sam didn't say those are game-changers, but that is probably the hope in their evaluations. Of course that produced a follow-up question if things had improved.

"No. Well, yes, but I don't want to talk about it right now," Pittman said as he looked over at sports information director Kyle Parkinson for help. "I don't remember what the question was, but I think the answer was no. I just feel good about it, and I'll leave it at that for right now."

You would have to watch the video above to see because it probably was a normal pause and no real clue what he was told. He would prefer to just do things the way he'd done it for over three decades and sell folks on coming to the Hogs. Now a lot of them are looking for money.

Every single coach for the Razorbacks, when asked about NIL, say it comes up pretty quickly in conversations with recruits. That's probably magnified with this whole transfer portal for free agency of college athletics.

The numbers will probably be staggering what's out there at some places and that's not what we'll hear about it. It's hard to find a legal way to get personal and private financial information. There's no way that would hold up to a trial a first-year law student could probably get dismissed with a summary judgement.

The Hogs are going to have to come in strong, a lot stronger than the way anybody is acting. There's always leaks and bragging that you have to filter out, but you can usually tell ... one way or the other. It's an arms race in college athletics and the weapon of choice is money. Probably more than anyone wants to even consider.

HOGS FEED:

SCORING PARADE LIFTS RAZORBACKS TO WIN OVER UCA, COACH MIKE NEIGHBORS' THIRD 5-0 START

SEC ROLL CALL: ARKANSAS TRIES TO TELL SEC IT'S NOT HIS DADDY NO MATTER WHAT ANYBODY THINKS

SEC SHORTS: AUBURN FANS GET NEW DRUG FOR SYMPTOMS OF BEING TIGERS FAN THAT WOULD BE PERFECT FOR ARKANSAS IF IN MAXIMUM STRENGTH

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