University of Arkansas Vice Chancellor and Director of Athletics Hunter Yurachek says his biggest concern looking ahead in college athletics is the issue of "name, image and likeness."
Yurachek kicked off the Arkansas High School Athletic Administration Association state conference Wednesday at the Hot Springs Convention Center, where he told a crowd of high school athletic directors, coaches, and other administrators that NIL has become "an animal of its own."
"Absolutely the biggest concern still is the name, image and likeness piece. We are being sued left and right by (ill-intentioned) plaintiff attorneys that are looking to make some dollars and are using student-athletes that have had a really good experience. Here's the thing -- if you ask any of our student-athletes at the University of Arkansas if they're having a great experience, do they have everything that they need, 99% of them would say 'absolutely,'" he said.
Last July, NCAA college athletes began having the opportunity to benefit from NIL after governing bodies adopted an interim policy suspending NCAA NIL rules for all incoming and current student-athletes in all sports. This allows college athletes -- for the first time -- to reap the financial rewards from their success, too.
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Yurachek said student-athletes today have access to more resources than they have ever had. Each team, he said, has a full-time nutritionist, strength coach, trainer, mental health professional, academic counselor, and much more.
"You have to try to fail as a student-athlete at this level," he said. "And if we'd handled name, image and likeness the right way, and our student-athletes are earning a million dollars, then that has all been above board. But what's happening now within college athletics (is) donors are buying student-athletes during the recruiting process to come. That's going to ruin college athletics. And that is my biggest concern as an administrator."
While the policy preserves the fact that college sports are not "pay-for-play," nor act as an improper inducement to choosing a particular school, the landscape appears to be heading that direction, he said.
"We thought we were ahead of it," he said. "We established this program called "Flagship." I hired a senior associate AD for athlete brand development and a staff of three to support him in his efforts. And it's gone very well for our student-athletes."
According to Yurachek, about nine months into the NIL adoption, the University of Arkansas has had 180 student-athletes do NIL agreements with various companies across the state and region, made up of 115 men and 65 women. This accounts for 483 total agreements at $1.1 million to date.
"If you've been following college athletics, there's these things that are popping up now called 'collectives.' OK, what's a collective? A collective is a group of very wealthy alumni that get together and they're going to pay the student-athletes to do nothing -- but play football, or play basketball -- and that's, as administrators, what we were fearful was going to happen," he said.
Yurachek said what they thought would happen is happening and he does not know how to "turn that train back." He referred to the example of noted Oklahoma quarterback Spencer Rattler, who transferred to South Carolina. Rattler had an NIL with a car dealer while at Oklahoma, which gave him two vehicles. They are now in a legal battle as the dealer is seeking the cars back.
Yurachek said it is hard to get a feel for the landscape of what is coming in college athletics but he would not be surprised if in the next five to 10 years a model exists where football and basketball student-athletes are no longer student-athletes, but employees of some entity and paid to play that sport.
"It's almost like a minor league system for football and basketball and your other nonrevenue sports, per se, will become under another umbrella. We're heading down that direction and it's not a great path," he said. "I think the money will dry up. I really do. I don't think it's a sustainable model.
"I think businesses that are invested in this are excited right now. I think that excitement will dwindle soon," he said.
The two-day AHSAAA conference, which precedes today's start of the high school state basketball finals, features general work sessions along with breakout sessions on various topics related to Arkansas high school athletics.