Sam Pittman Press Conference: Feels Hogs in Good Shape on New Recruiting Numbers

Now that schools can add players with NCAA's waiver this week, how it affects recruiting this year

With the NCAA granting a one-year waiver that could add seven players to the scholarship limits for football, Sam Pittman is in favor of it.

Schools can now replace up to seven football student-athletes who leave school in the first term.

"if you keep maximizing at 25, you’re going to be at 70 before you know it, down the road," Pittman said Wednesday. "Then they’re going to fire you and the new guy’s going to come in and he’s got 68 guys on scholarship. Then they’re going to fire that guy. You could never catch up.

The Razorbacks aren't in any danger of reduced numbers. Pittman has shown he can manage the roster juggling all the stuff these days with the transfer portal that gives and takes.

"We’re not in that situation," he said. "We have a lot. We have 85 and we don’t have very many seniors. So I’m sure it’ll benefit every program.

"I don’t know how much it’ll benefit us this year, but down the road whenever you have more portal transfers and more seniors. I think it’s a good rule. I think it’ll try to keep the playing field even.

"You’d hate to see one program with 70 scholarship players and another with 85. I think this is the NCAA’s way of trying to keep it balanced as much as possible."

The Razorbacks currently have 18 verbal commitments for the Class of 2022. That was going to be a smaller class with the seniors opted to return in 2021.

Pittman and the Hogs still aren't sure exactly how many spots they'll be able to fill for the 2022 cycle. At least eight scholarship seniors could choose to come back again in 2022.

"Super-seniors" who opted to return in 2021 did not count against the limit of 85 scholarships but they will next year. Arkansas won't have a solid number of spots until decisions are made by current players after the season.

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