When college athletes began to profit on their Name, Image and Likeness on July 1, 2021, things got out of hand really quick and it has forced schools to either adapt or die.
College athletics are a business that is constantly changing, and Arkansas baseball head coach Dave Van Horn understands that. While he might not be happy about the way things are trending, Van Horn knows he has to keep up with the joneses.
"We want to be in the game, so we’re in the game," Van Horn said. "We’re getting after it. If you really take a step back and look at everything as a whole, I think it’s a mess. I don’t know. We’ll see where it ends up.
"Right now, we’re recruiting hard and trying to keep our guys that we signed. Just keep them, get them here. Then the guys in the portal, we’re just waiting on a few things. We feel good about where we’re at."
Van Horn should feel good about the state of his program after the team won the SEC West and a share of the SEC regular season title in 2023. The Arkansas brand is strong and recognized as part of the the upper echelon of college baseball programs.
There is no ignoring what happened on Monday, though. The LSU Tigers dominated the Florida Gators in an 18-4 national championship final matchup to secure the program's seventh national title.
You also can't ignore the players that contributed significantly to LSU's run — Air Force transfer Paul Skenes, NC State transfer Tommy White, UCLA transfer Thatcher Hurd, Arizona transfer Riley Cooper and others.
If LSU fans are willing to buy 68,888 jello shots for $5 each — total of $344,440 — just to win a small plaque at Rocco's Pizza in Omaha, Nebraska, they are likely very willing to help contribute to NIL funds to get players that help win a national championship.
"It’s an advantage over some that don’t have as much, so to speak, and it’s a disadvantage over some that have a lot more," Van Horn said. "I think just from watching games the last few weeks, you see where the portal can really springboard you ahead of some people if guys come in and they stay healthy and they don’t get hurt.
"I think last summer, some schools maybe were more advanced in what they could offer and they did offer. They got help from around the area and the state and they got some pretty good guys. Guys that we were on, honestly. This year, maybe it’s a little more level, but it’s honestly out of control."
Van Horn didn't mention a team specifically in the quote above, but later on he was asked if he was referring to LSU and he called that a "silly question."
"Seriously?" Van Horn asked Bob Holt of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. "Do you know who they had that came from the portal? Maybe Tommy Tanks? A guy named - what was it, Skenes? He was pretty good. We could go on and on. They had the best team in the country, and they proved it."
One of the known transfers that Arkansas targeted and LSU landed was Skenes from Air Force. The big right-hander took the college baseball world by storm, won SEC Pitcher of the Year and is going to be a top-2 pick in this year's MLB Draft.
"Yeah, we pursued him like every team in the SEC and every team in the country,” Van Horn said March 21. “Great pitcher. Can also hit. I thought he was going to hit there, too. We pursued him about as hard as you can pursue.”
NIL is a great tool that can benefit student athletes who are in dire need of financial support for themselves and their families. While winning a championship is no easy task, it's much more attainable when you're able to put yourself at an advantage thanks to a wealth of financial support.
"I don’t know where this goes from here," Van Horn said. "If you were dealing with it like we are and everybody is, I’ve watched some mid-majors Division I programs get absolutely, to use another term, torched. This summer already I’ve seen coaches quit, retire that weren’t going to, but they don’t have any players left. I don’t know where it’s going to go."
Van Horn did mention that NIL money isn't going to keep a player from signing a professional contract unless they are a free agent or late-round pick type guy, so there likely aren't any college baseball players making $345,000 in NIL money.
"As far as keeping a guy from signing a professional contract, NIL is not going to be able to help you do that, unless it's maybe more of a free agent type guy, maybe a late pick where they're only going to pay you 100-150 thousand dollars," Van Horn said. "You might be able to keep that guy with some NIL money. They have way too much money to not sign a guy if they really want to."
Rules and regulations surrounding NIL are a hot topic from a national perspective, and Sports Illustrated's Ross Dellenger even released a memo from the NCAA on Tuesday that gave warnings to schools regarding the NCAA's rules conflicting with state laws.
"Schools are lobbying their state lawmakers to create laws that permit those schools to break the very rules that they created, all in an effort to gain a recruiting advantage over rival schools until those schools get their state laws to mirror or exceed their rivals," Dellenger wrote in a tweet.
For now, all Van Horn can do is focus on his own roster, which is shaping up nicely for the 2024 season. Four incoming transfers and one JUCO addition are set to go along with the nation's top recruiting class and a strong group of returning players.
"Well, we had to fill in some spots, obviously," Van Horn said. "Maybe with a little bit of age. But I mean… It’s pretty simple. You know who you lose, you know who you’ve got coming back. Do you need to plug in a guy for depth or do you need a left-handed hitter, right-handed hitter, maybe a reliever or two? That’s kind of what we’ve done."
The next task will be to wait and see what Arkansas players and signees are drafted and sign with an MLB team following the draft, which spans from July 9-11.
