Calipari Wants College Basketball Decision Makers to Listen to Him Just Once

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark.— Arkansas head coach John Calipari has a guiding principle he wants the potential decision makers around college basketball to follow.

Be able to explain how this choice affects the young men and women it impacts in a positive, sensible manner. In other words, he is lifting a mantra that is supposed to be the guiding light for every school teacher and administrator when it comes to choices that affect the lives of students whether individually or as a whole.

Is this what's best for kids?

That's supposed to be asked in regard to every lesson plan, state legislative vote, budget decision, all the way down the school's homework policy and when the floors are going to get cleaned throughout the day. To hear Calipari speak, it's a philosophy that has since gotten lost and it's inability to trickle up to the realm of college athletics has created a battle field that requires he stick around to try to fix the problems this lack of focus has created in its wake.

"One of my things right now, why am I still going, I can't leave this profession like it is, and then walk away, because my son's in this profession," Calipari said on a visit with "The Chuck and Bo Show" earlier this week. "There are young coaches in this profession, and so I'm looking at this saying, 'We got to be part of this solution before we walk away from this.' And that's part of my purpose."

Calipari says he is perfectly fine with the players making money while playing at the college level. That's because he fully supports the concept of name, image and likeness.

If a player wants a cut of his jersey sales, autograph signing proceeds or a little extra cash to be in a commercial for the local Mexican restaurant or car dealership, then by all means proceed with the full backing of a Hall of Fame coach with a lot of influence in college athletics.

The problem is what people are referring to when they talk about NIL in regard to college athletics is not actual NIL. It's merely handing players absurd amounts of money with little to no expectation in regard to truly earning it and with little to no support on how it's going to affect their lives.

"I've been one of those coaches that said they should have a right to their name, image and likeness, Calipari said. "It's theirs. They should be able to sell it."

However, he cites institutional greed at nearly all levels as a major reason why collegiate sports are in the quandry they are in rather than the simplistic, pure nature NIL should have found itself.

"Because of the arrogance [by decision makers], because of the way [people of influence are] worried about the organization instead of the kids, [this is] where we are right now," Calipari said. "Free agency, NIL tampering, offering all the [large paychecks and perks] instead of 'You come with me because I can make a difference in your life. We can work together. I'm not telling you I have a magic wand, but what I'm telling you is these kids, look what they've done, where they've gone. They were sitting where you were. So we have a history of doing it, but I can't do it for you.'"

He then went on to break down the chaotic world of college sports and not only how unsustainable it is, but how much of a disservice it imparts upon the men and women a lot of times because programs, judges and politicians are inwardly focused on what might give their team an edge rather than what's best for the athletes in the long run.

"Now [look] where we are," Calipari said. "No guardrails, no rules. They'll make rules for certain people . . . They're paying a quarterback $6 million, $7 million? How? How? I mean, I don't understand what we're doing. How you do that? I don't care that they do it, but just explain to us how we're to do this."

However, it should be noted that the next day Calipari landed 5-star All-American Jordan Smith, Jr. in what has been reported multiple times across the internet as the biggest financial deal in the history of college basketball. Now, nothing official has been seen so definitely take that with a grain of salt, but reeling in the No. 1 guard in the country in an effort to replace the No. 1 freshman in all of college basketball can't be cheap.

Some way, Calipari is figuring out the great mystery he describes. Still, he appears to have genuine concern for what the current way of handling NIL does to players by placing them in an unrealistic world.

He's probably better than most at putting a voice as to what the true implications are in regard to the negative impacts of handing over so much while asking for so little in return.

"[NIL} money right now is Fugazi," Calipari said. "Fugazi. It's fake. A kid's gonna go get a job right when he's done playing. And I know they're playing till they're 30 right now because we have no rules. I don't blame them. I don't blame them. They're making money.

"So when he's offered a job, the average salary in this country is around $60,000 . . . If that young man is offered $60,000, he's looking at that person and saying, 'What do you know? What I made at the university for playing sports? What? Do you get me an apartment? Do you get me a car? Do I have to come to work, or do you just send me checks?' What are we doing?"

Of course, getting one of those jobs won't be easy. Players can't really rely on connections from within the university because in many cases they were only there for a few months.

Also, most jobs paying that kind of cash require some sort of degree or technical certificate, neither of which these players have because it wasn't mathematically possible while running across the country chasing checks instead of college credits.

"If a kid transfers four times will you get a college degree?" Calipari asked. "You can't. [I guess] they could just give it to you and I'm hearing they're starting to do that too. So now either they just give it to you or they don't.

"Do you have any loyalty from the fan base? Do you have any loyalty from anybody in the state? No. You're a hired gun. All of a sudden, the whole dynamic of a college education, a college experience, all the contacts you make, that's out the window."

Court room decisions handed down by judges specifically chosen to rig the outcome by having donors or highly involved graduates decide whether the team's starting quarterback can play for another year or grant the human highlight reel from the basketball team a seventh year of eligibility to help pay for his alimony and feed his current family shape the current college landscape rather than the NCAA.

It's a practice that Calipari firmly stands against.

"The judge in Alabama deserves a medal, a medal for stepping up saying, 'You know what? This isn't right. This isn't right. We can't do it,'" Calipari said. "[SEC commissioner] Greg Sankey stepping in to say, look, the other four, three commissioners, or four of them, should get together and start making statements when these cases come up because you can't have a guy that's on his second marriage with three kids playing against an 18 year old."

Despite this, Calipari says he is going to lean in favor of high school players whenever possible, although the current NIL landscape is making this approach hard for even him. He also understands and doesn't begrudge the position his peers are in who have to pony up for numerous transfers in hopes of hanging onto a job.

"I'm going to continue to recruit freshmen," Calipari said. "I just can't recruit as many, where we may end up with three freshmen, but all of them, All-Americans. All three, All-American, can play right away. The problem is, if, if he's not able to play right away, he's leaving. He's gone. My kids may leave because they go to the NBA. I'm okay with that. But a kid just leaving because someone's going to offer more money [is rough]."

Even a Hall of Famer like Calipari has to wonder whether he needs to walk on egg shells to an extent while trying to figure out how far he can push his Razorbacks. It's so easy to not only lose a locker room, but literally lose an entire roster physically.

"How about this? You're tough on a kid," Calipari posed. "Don't you want people to be tough on your son or daughter so they grow up and deal with it? Deal with it. That's part of life. We're supposed to be transformational.

"As coaches, I feel that I've been able to do that course with this group. I've been hard on this group. I don't care if they got money. That doesn't matter who makes what, but we've become transactional. I'm going to pay you this amount to come and play for me.

"We got to get back to where we were even though the kids should get money. They should be able to move. They should be able to be taken care of, but we're going to end up having to collective bargain and have them, even if they're not employees, they got to have a trade union. Something that we can say we'll do this for you, but here's the rules that you got to live by, or you can't be a part of this."

"We're going to end up having to collective bargain and have them, even if they're not employees, they got to have a trade union. Something that we can say we'll do this for you, but here's the rules that you got to live by, or you can't be a part of this."
John Calipari, Arkansas Razorbacks

There's one other major fallout Calipari foresees that will need to be addressed immediately. Because players reside in this false world, when they are finally dumped out into the real world, there is a strong chance the reality of life will send them into bouts of depression and high anxiety.

Suddenly they are no longer someone to be pampered and admired. They are just a random guy making substantially less money in a lot of cases, trying to figure out how to clock in at work as the least qualified and respected person in the room and stressing out because no one taught him in high school how taxes work.

"We're going to end up with mental health issues," Calipari said. "Mental health issues. Could you imagine, with dealing with that at 21 that you were making X amount, and now you're making 1/10 or less, and that's the rest of your life? Wait a minute, what are we doing?"

Calipari also has an answer for those college players and their lawyers who argue they should be able to max out as much money as possible in any way possible with zero regulations by the NCAA.

"Go Pro. Go Pro," Calipari said. "You don't have to do it in college. Be a pro. 'Well, I'm not good enough.' Well, then you go get a job. Now the problem is going to be your job is going to pay you [up to] $60,000, $70,000. You're going to have to deal with that. That's life."

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