Fans don’t get it. This wasn’t a move to make more money off other sports, this was about getting the department ready for private equity.
Private equity doesn’t want costs that don’t produce profits. This is the future of college sports if something doesn’t change.
The athletic department has never had more funding in the history of the program. They don’t have to pay the university back now. They have new income through student fees. The new Tyson deal funds athletes across all sports. They’ve added revenue generation through their partner at the LinkU. They also raised ticket prices to generate more revenue from fans.
Does money really correlate to success at the university? Football spent the most money and had a 2–10 record. Hopefully that changes this season, and I think it will, but if competitiveness was cited as a reason, that’s absurd.
People always want to blame athletes in this new era, but what did the university just do? They forced athletes to transfer out to continue playing their sport. I thought transferring was bad and that athletes were supposed to finish their degrees. Yet the university just put many athletes in that exact position. Instead, they could have continued to compete without bringing in a new class, and let them finish while playing at Arkansas.
Overall, if Hunter Yurachek or the athletic department truly believed the football program was going to win a national championship, do you think they would start cutting programs? Money would be flowing in if that were the case. What does this really mean, and what does it signal for the future? Maybe instead of taking on side gigs, he should be ensuring the future of Arkansas programs.
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