John Calipari Issues Strong Statement to Recruits Only Interested in NIL

Arkansas Razorbacks head coach John Calipari issued a strong statement.

Nelson Chenault-Imagn Images

Nobody knows how to recruit in different eras of college basketball better than legendary Kentucky Wildcats turned Arkansas Razorbacks head men's basketball coach John Calipari.

As someone who was largely credited - or more accurately blamed - for the rise of the one and done era in college basketball, Calipari has been dealing with the most talented young players in the sport for a very long time. It's no secret that the game has changed dramatically over the last couple of years however, and that recruiting in college basketball has become just as much 'how much can you pay me now' versus Calipari's previous ace in the hole 'how quickly can I get to the NBA?'

But with one offseason in Fayetteville now under his belt and just weeks away from his first season as the Arkansas head coach, Calipari's stance on recruits asking for money before they even set foot on campus may be surprising to some

“If a kid says to me, ‘Well, what’s the number?’ Well, I’m probably not taking that kid,” Calipari told former Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski on his Sirius XM radio show. "If that’s all it’s about - NIL - there are other places they can go."

Calipari went on, as many coaches have in the last few years, to absolutely rip the NCAA and say that every rule change that has been made in this new era of college sports has not at all been with the benefit of the athlete in mind.

"I’ve tried to tell the NCAA, they’ve obviously never listened to me, but if they made decisions all based on the kids, they’ll all be right decisions," he said. "But they don’t. They make decisions on authority and controlling and other sports and all this [other stuff]. … The reason we’re doing this is for them. We have to make this better for them, and it’s not. And it’s not only better for them, it’s screwing up the sport."

Calipari will continue to be one of the faces of the sport in terms of coaching, and his words certainly hold a lot of weight. It will take voices like him and many others in order to move collegiate athletics into a spot where for the first time in a long time, things feel healthy and moving in the right direction.