Hogs’ Silverfield seeks players; legislators seek answers

By STEVE BRAWNER

New University of Arkansas Head Football Coach Ryan Silverfield told the Rotary Club of Little Rock March 3 that his former University of Memphis team beat Southeastern Conference schools despite having a talent disadvantage.

He may have to try to continue doing that at Arkansas, now that a quarterback can cost $5 million. 

Meanwhile, some legislators, including House Education Committee Vice-Chair Rep. Brit McKenzie, R-Rogers, are asking questions about recent financial and football decisions made by the university’s Board of Trustees. 

We’ll start with the coach. In his speech before the Rotarians, Silverfield said the program’s philosophy centers around the acronym “All In.” It stands for “attitude,” “little things,” “love,” “intelligence” and “now,” meaning having a sense of urgency. He said he wanted Arkansas to have the SEC’s highest graduation rate and the highest grade point average in program history.

Silverfield said players and the program itself will be disciplined. He already knows what players will be doing at 9:17 a.m. on October 14.

Silverfield is taking over a program that has been mostly bad for years. And he’s doing it at a time of change – really chaos – in college athletics. Schools and boosters are paying players who can freely transfer each year to play for the highest bidder. Alluding to that reality, Silverfield said if Arkansas offers a player $100,000 and Ole Miss offers him $200,000, the player will choose Ole Miss. 

Apparently he was just using easy-to-understand numbers, because $100,000 won’t buy star players these days. In fact, it’s widely reported that Texas Tech is paying quarterback Brendan Sorsby roughly $5 million next season. 

The University of Arkansas will struggle to keep up unless the Walton family focuses its attention on football instead of a medical school, a world-class art museum, and hiking and biking trails. The athletic department did recently ink a deal to sew Tyson patches on players’ uniforms.

To help bridge the gap, the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees is transferring money from academics to athletics. It first voted Jan. 28 to require university leadership to transfer $6 million. Then on March 9, as reported by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, it instead approved an alternate plan presented by UA System President Jay Silveria to transfer $3.4 million without increasing student fees. 

Silveria’s plan didn’t change the board’s vote Jan. 28 to end the transfer of what lately has averaged $4.4 million annually from athletics to the university. The board also had voted to require the athletic department to raise $5 million for an “All In Fund” for football operations.  

The UA’s efforts have attracted the attention of Rep. McKenzie and others. He wrote a letter Feb. 17 to Silveria and UA Chancellor Charles Robinson, which he copied to the board, that was signed by 24 other members of the Arkansas House of Representatives. The letter expressed concern that the burden for the UA’s changes will fall on students and taxpayers. 

The letter asked Silveria to undertake an independent cost study of the athletic department and explore operational efficiencies. It also asked for a report to be given to the Joint Education Committee and the House Higher Education Subcommittee. 

“In the absence of meaningful attention to this issue, we are prepared to revisit the full scope of legislative tools available to ensure accountability during the upcoming Fiscal Session,” McKenzie wrote.

McKenzie told me he’s a free market capitalist and a “huge Razorback fan.” But college athletics currently is a bottomless, ill-defined market. Students should not bear the brunt of the desire to spend more money on sports. Things are happening fast and should be scrutinized.

“I’m not an athletic professional. My job is to not tell them what they can do better. My job is to tell them where third rails exist,” he said, referring to a subway’s untouchable electrified rail. “And increasing tuition and increasing the burden on taxpayers is a third rail, in my opinion.”

Counting McKenzie, 25 House members signed the letter. He said another lawmaker is also part of the group.

Twenty-six is the number of representatives needed to block state appropriations to any agency, including the University of Arkansas. McKenzie said he didn’t reach that number on purpose, and he’s not trying to make threats. He said Chancellor Robinson is doing a good job, particularly with his $200 million Land of Opportunity Scholarship campaign. 

But he’s looking for answers and watching to see what happens now. Legislators have oversight responsibilities over the university, and he and others intend to exercise it. 

So this story has football, politics, and football plus politics. 

I’m all in.

Steve Brawner’s column is syndicated to 21 outlets in Arkansas. Email him at brawnersteve@mac.com.