All Hogs

Name, Image, Likeness Rates Skyrocket with Texas' Latest Move

Will Arkansas fans be able to step up because new program will raise stakes for everyone?

Andy Hodges

All the talk around the Hogs these days is Sam Pittman's contract but now everybody might want to pay attention to what players may be getting.

The name, image and likeness arms race is about to heat up more than just about anyone imagined.

And the Razorbacks can't dismiss it with "they can't sign 'em all" or those type arguments. The transfer portal has changed all of that and recruiting has been altered drastically in the last two years.

It's going to be interesting to see how Arkansas can compete with what the hated Texas Longhorns have started.

Now it's going to be up to fans and everybody is going to have fun figuring this one out.

A nonprofit charity organization based in Austin, Horns with Heart, will provide every Texas offensive lineman on scholarship with $50,000 a year as part of a new NIL program.

Longhorn boosters and supporters have launched several programs to help with recruiting and getting the best players to Austin.

"The Pancake Factory" is the latest and it's just for offensive linemen. There is another program called "Burnt Ends" will pay tight ends six figures a year.

Combined with the Clark Field Collective, every Texas offensive lineman will be getting $150,000 a year.

The non-profit charities are done to "empower them to use their NIL rights to support their favorite charities."

The Collective was funded with an initial $10 million and numerous former Longhorns athletes are on the board of directors.

This is obviously something everybody in the SEC will be watching. That's the conference where teams are going to have to compete with Texas in the next few years.

That's going to require players.

Of course, the Longhorns are sitting home watching the bowl season as first-year coach Steve Sarkisian struggled to a 5-7 record that included a 40-21 loss to the Razorbacks in the second week of the season.

But now they have a funded NIL arrangement that's going to be used in recruiting.

Everybody else has to keep up.

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Andy Hodges
ANDY HODGES

Sports columnist, writer, former radio host and television host who has been expressing an opinion on sports in the media for over four decades. He has been at numerous media stops in Arkansas, Texas and Mississippi.