Hunter Yurachek Q&A

[00:00:00] Speaker A: You're listening to the Whole Hog Sports podcast. [00:00:03] Speaker B: And now, here's your host, Matt Jones. [00:00:07] Speaker A: Hey, welcome in. Today we're at the Hogs Illustrated Sports Club in Springdale. We've got a Q and A with Hunter Jurechek, the Arkansas athletics director. Coming up, we'll talk about Ward Memorial Stadium, Arkansas State, and much more. But first, a word from Kendall King. [00:00:18] Speaker B: At Kendall King, we're proud of over four decades of design. We're continuing the legacy of great creative design by combining our brands of Kendall King, Soapbox and shopcart. Together, these brands represent a new focus in marketing design with individual attention to specific areas. Through our design expertise, supported by a team of talented professionals, we showcase our best. We are Kendall King. We are Soapbox. We are Shop Cart. We are design. [00:00:45] Speaker A: Is this weekend going to be the last game at War Memorial Stadium for the Razorbacks? [00:00:49] Speaker C: That's an easy one. [00:00:50] Speaker A: Easiest one I've got. [00:00:51] Speaker C: Yeah. You know, there's been. Now, this will be the 219th game that's been played in Little Rock for Razorback football, and we don't have any currently on the schedule in the future. And there's a reason for that because, you know, we just figured out if we're going to play eight versus nine SEC games, and now we know that's going to be nine. And we're going to have five really good games at Razorback Stadium every year and five really good games on the road. And when I say really good, really tough games. So we've got 10 tough games. And so we have to be really strategic in what those other two games look like and where they're played to give us the best chance, first and foremost, to win football games. And in this era when everything's about generating revenue, we've got an incredible stadium here in Fayetteville with 173 suites. We charge a significant amount of money for season tickets. And so it really doesn't make sense to continue to play games at Warren Memorial Stadium. Doesn't mean that we never will again, just because this is the last one that we have under contract. But we're going to sit down and sit down with the people that I need to sit down with, and we'll make that decision collectively. [00:01:53] Speaker A: Well, and that leads me into another question. Who makes the final decision? Who are the people who have a voice in this conversation? [00:01:58] Speaker C: Well, obviously myself, the chancellor. I mean, Sam acts like he doesn't have a voice. He does have a voice in this. He's a head football coach, the president's system, our board. And this is a political piece too. So obviously Governor Sanders will have a voice just like Governor Hutchinson did before. So those will be the people that will lean on and talk and who has the final decision? I don't know if anybody wants to claim that they have the final decision based on what that final decision is. [00:02:25] Speaker A: But Sam, has you mentioned the governor? He's alluded to Sarah Sanders multiple times this summer when he's talked about War Memorial in a way that makes it sound like she has a very large voice in this conversation. Can you characterize, you know, what her influence is over whether or not this continues? [00:02:43] Speaker C: Well, she is the governor of our state and the governor appoints the board, who appoints the president, who appoints a chancellor, who signs my contract. So I'm going to, I can follow the chain and I'm going to listen to her. But I mean, she has a voice and she's. We've had some conversations about it and we're continuing to have conversations about it and I'll continue to have conversations with Chancellor Robinson and the board and we'll come to what's the right decision for all involved. [00:03:10] Speaker A: A lot's changed down there since you got here. You know, Asa Hutchinson, he put it the stadium under the state parks umbrella. I think they got some grants that paid for some locker rooms, video board, things like that. What's the stadium look like now versus when you got here? And maybe how much further does it need to go to be able to continue hosting big time football games? [00:03:33] Speaker C: They have made some significant improvements just with the locker room piece. I mean, they have totally revamped those. The premium areas are nice and about as well as they can be. It's just not the stadium we have in Fayetteville. You know, they would have to make a significant investment. And then, you know, the fact that it takes away a recruiting weekend not just for our football programs, but, you know, looked at the sidelines, we probably had 100 recruits from various sports on Saturday for that game. And so it takes a recruiting weekend off campus, not just for football, but for all of our sports. And so you can't recreate some of the things in Little Rock that you can have in Fayetteville. [00:04:10] Speaker A: The most recent figures that I've been able to find, and this was a month before you got hired, said that the average game day revenue between Fayetteville and Little Rock, the difference between the two was $3.7 million and it was projected to go to 4.7 million after the north end zone was Constructed. You've said here in the past that it's a seven figure difference. What is financially the difference between Fayetteville and Little Rock games. And maybe if you could characterize why that's important, the difference in this Rev. [00:04:38] Speaker C: Share era, it's seven figures. I can't give you an exact figure, Matt, so I don't want to not answer your question, but it's easily seven figures. And I think I just went through kind of our budget model where we've had to eliminate positions. Our staff hasn't gotten any raises this year. And so anytime you sacrifice two, three or four million dollars in it's got to come from somewhere. We've got to either generate more revenue to replace it or we've got to cut expenses to balance our budget or we've got to take it out of reserves. And in this area, when we're trying to compete at the highest level in the sec, does it continue to make sense? And a reminder, we're a self sustaining athletic program, one of less than 20 in the country where we don't get a dollar from the state, we don't get a dollar from the university, we don't have a student athletic fee. Every dollar we generate as an athletic program is invested back into our ath. So if we have a year that we have to sacrifice a significant amount of revenue that really hurts our program. [00:05:36] Speaker A: The student athletic fee, that's something that is going up on other university campuses. Why is it important to Arkansas not to ask the students to help subsidize the athletic program? [00:05:45] Speaker C: I think in this day and age, I really think it is a bad look. You're just playing a shell game with money. If you ask the students to that, many of them are taking out loans, working jobs to pay to go to college and asking them to have a student athletic fee so we can take and that money and share that with their student athletes as cash in their pockets. Because it's revenue sharing now and we can say, well it's not going to go towards revenue sharing. It's going to go to the bottom line of the athletic program and we need it because revenue sharing is coming into play and I think that is a bad look to tax your current students and the loans that they're taking and the jobs they're working to pay for us and our student athletes. [00:06:23] Speaker A: In your remarks you talked about Frank Broyles, he John Barnhill, Jeff Long. You've got a long list of ads who would never consider playing Arkansas State. You made the decision to do it. Why? [00:06:35] Speaker C: Well, you know, when I first arrived, one of the first people I had a conversation with about playing in state schools was Coach Van Horn. And he just thought it made sense for us to play in state schools in baseball because it saves some money on guarantees or easy bus trips for those. And we opened the door, and you may remember we. I think we played Little Rock in the spring of 2019, and they kicked our butt right in baseball, we still made it to the College World Series that year. You know, the world didn't come to an end. And then that kind of opened the door up for. I mean, we've had our soccer teams gone to Arkansas State, our women's basketball team went to Pine Bluff. We played those teams at home, and everything within our state has survived. And so regardless of what happens on Saturday, we better win. But we'll survive Saturday, and it's great for our state to have that game finally. And will it happen again? Our schedule's pretty set through 2030 now, so the next opportunity to play a game with Arkansas State again will be 2031. But I think it's just great for our state. And I think you see it that the game sold out, and we haven't sold out in Little Rock in quite some time. And so I think it just shows the interest, not only from their fans, but our fans and just football fans across the state, that this game's happening. [00:07:54] Speaker A: Would anything that happens this weekend make you want to schedule them again? And is there a potential that if this is a rousing success this weekend, that that could be an avenue to keep War Memorial in the. In the picture? [00:08:07] Speaker C: Never say never. But it's. I mean, we've got. At the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, we've got nothing really to gain by playing this game. We're supposed to win the game. We better win the game. If we lose the game, we've got everything to lose. And Arkansas State's got everything to gain by playing this game. It's great for our state. I'm not going to say we'll never do it again, but we'll see what happens this weekend. [00:08:33] Speaker A: You also had a lot of leverage whenever you scheduled this game because they wanted it forever, and Arkansas hasn't agreed to it. You gave them 10,000 tickets in war Memorial. Why was that decision made? [00:08:44] Speaker C: It saved us on a guarantee. I mean, generally these guarantees are anywhere between 1.5 to 1.75 million, and we reduced the guarantee significantly and gave them tickets in lieu of an additional guarantee. [00:08:57] Speaker A: So, I mean, I don't know what the dynamics are going to be like in the stands on Saturday. But there are people who think there could be 15, 20,000 A State fans there. Is it worth having a lower guarantee for maybe not having as strong of a home field advantage? [00:09:12] Speaker C: I think we'll have plenty of a home field advantage at War Memorial Stadium. I'm concerned about that. [00:09:16] Speaker A: Well, from the people have told you. What have they told you about maybe who the people are that are buying these tickets? Or can you even tell if it's Craighead county zip codes? [00:09:27] Speaker C: Yeah, I haven't done that research. I mean they've sold through their allotment but I don't know if they sold through their allotment to Arkansas fans that couldn't get tickets otherwise or Arkansas State fans. They're using it as a fundraising tool for them and so I'm sure they want to put them in the hands of Arkansas State fans. But I mean you can see at any venue across the country sometimes those tickets get in the hands of people you don't want them in. [00:09:51] Speaker A: You talked about the nine game SEC schedule next year. You've got four non conference games that are under contract. So you've got to eliminate one of those. You're going to play at Utah or under contract play at Utah, North Alabama, Tulsa and Memphis here. How do you. Who goes away and what's that conversation like right now? [00:10:09] Speaker C: Yeah, so we've adjusted the schedule and this is not under contract but I think it's close enough that I'll share this with you today. So Tulsa is going to move up to a September game. Memphis, their athletic director has agreed to move the game next year to 2030. And so we'll play Tulsa next year along with an FCS opponent that we have in North Alabama. And then we'll play at Utah and then Memphis will move from 26 to 30 and then we'll play the 28 game with Memphis as well. [00:10:40] Speaker A: Leading up to the announcement of the nine game conference schedule, you had been against it. You said you thought eight was fine and then after the announcement you said you supported the nine game schedule. What changed over the summer that made your opinion change on this money? [00:10:56] Speaker C: Yeah, it's. I think as you look around the table in the sec there was probably seven or eight, nine athletic directors that knew it may not be in the best interest of their football program to play that ninth game, but it was in the best interest of their athletic department to play that ninth game. Because in this day and age where we're all scrambling to find Every rock you can turn to generate another dollar to leave $5 million on the table annually to play another SEC opponent. And it's not just $5 million annually. You can reduce your guarantee expenses by one guarantee game and then you're going to be able to sell your tickets at more of a premium because every year you know you're going to have five premium games on your football schedule. And so we think there's a delta some the six and a half to seven million dollar range at a minimum by doing that and then the long range play. You know, the SEC right now with an eight game schedule ranks third in the country in viewership behind NFL and in the NBA. And as we look out towards a strategy that we're building for our next television contract, which is not, I mean we're less than a decade but nine years away from that, there's a significant value enhancement to that television contract by playing this ninth game. [00:12:15] Speaker A: And TV obviously wants more quality content from you all. Is there ever a chance that FCS games go away like the one you played last weekend? [00:12:24] Speaker C: Not, not on our schedule. I mean, I don't think it's fair to a football program to play 10 premium games and not have an opportunity to play an FCS opponent. So our strategy is going to be to play those 10 premium games to have an SCS opponent and then another Group of Six opponent on our schedule. [00:12:40] Speaker A: Every year we talked about playing Memphis and Tulsa in future years. It's a two for one agreement where they come here twice and then you go to Tulsa and to Memphis once. A lot of SEC teams are doing this in terms of going to group of five or group of six, whatever you want to call that level. Why did Arkansas make the decision to go to those places? [00:13:01] Speaker C: It saves you one year guaranteed money because by doing a home and away, you're not exchanging a guarantee on that first part of the home and away. And then secondly, the proximity of Tulsa, the proximity of Memphis allows our fan base to travel to both of those cities and both of those venues. And I think we'll see great support in a couple weeks in Memphis. And I think we'll see great support next year or the two years when we play at Tulsa. [00:13:23] Speaker A: Got announced this week you're going to play Texas Tech in Las Vegas in 2030 in the kickoff Classic there. How did that come about? [00:13:30] Speaker C: ESPN and Texas Tech approached us about playing Texas Tech's home game in 2030 out in Vegas. I would have never moved one of our home games there. So that was Texas Tech's home game that they moved there. There's a $3 million guarantee. You may see a recurring theme from this athletic director with that game and so to play that. And I think it's a great opportunity for our fans. It's Labor Day weekend. You'll get a national television broadcast and a good window. It'll be a great experience for our student athletes at that time and our fan base at that time as well. [00:14:02] Speaker A: You're not in AT&T Stadium anymore with A and M. Is there a chance you ever end up back in Dallas to play a game? [00:14:08] Speaker C: Absolutely. I think there's a game like that where we're going to Texas Tech to play Texas Tech in Las Vegas. I think there's an opportunity, if there's an opportunity like that in the future to go back to AT&T Stadium, we would do that. But again, it's just got to work for our schedule because we don't want to continue to take games away from Fayetteville because the value that we have there and the value of the season ticket is so important. [00:14:31] Speaker A: Your shopping naming rights for Razorback Stadium, you have been for probably close to a couple of years now, right? Or at least a year and a half or so. What's the status of that? And is there any chance we might see the name change during the season? [00:14:45] Speaker C: We haven't shopped yet, Matt. Okay, we haven't shopped yet. So what's that? The process has been is roughly two, two and a half years ago we had an evaluation of what the naming rights would be. We looked at some private entities that potentially could name the stadium. And then that didn't go the way we wanted it to go. And then now we're going to go public with that. And public meaning that it would be a corporate name to put on the stadium. And so we have we're close to finalizing a contract with a third party that will be the ones that shop that for us. They're the professionals at doing that. Will it happen during the course of this season? Absolutely not. I think it would even be ambitious to say that it would happen before the 2020, 26 season. But I think it's probably a 12 to 15 month process to really line up a deal. [00:15:37] Speaker A: We'll have more with Hunter Jurecheck in just a moment. But first, another word from Kendall King. [00:15:41] Speaker B: At Kendall King, we're proud of over four decades of design. We're continuing the legacy of great creative design by combining our brands of Kendall King soapbox and Shopcart together These brands represent a new focus in marketing design with individual attention to specific areas. Through our design expertise, supported by a team of talented professionals, we showcase our best. We are Kendall King. We are Soapbox. We are Shopcart. We are Design. [00:16:07] Speaker A: Hey, welcome back. We want to tell you about our friends at Bentonville Glass. They've been serving their community since 1971. Committed, professional, versatile. If you're looking for a quality leader in northwest Arkansas or looking for skilled craftsmanship, look no further than Bentonville Glass for all your glass market needs with the highest quality products. You can come by and see them now at 507 South Main in Bentonville or online at Bentonville Glass. Let's go back now to our conversation with Hunter Jurecheck at the Hogs Illustrated Sports Club. Like an industry standard, there's a lot of these third parties that go out and do this on behalf of the universities, correct? [00:16:41] Speaker C: Absolutely. They are. I mean, they've got the time, they've got the resources, they have the manpower, and they have the expertise in doing that. [00:16:48] Speaker A: We're spinning the hits here. Bud Walton arena renovation, where does it stand? [00:16:53] Speaker C: That renovation is on a side burner right now. We've got a great design for 150 million doll renovation to that. Much of that design has to happen at some point in time because there's some deferred maintenance that has to happen to that facility over the next three to five years. But as we were getting ready to go out into the marketplace, the university was entering into a $200 million capital campaign at the same time. And I felt it was disingenuous for us to step on the toes of their campaign and to go out and and approach many of the same donors for our campaign. So we put that on the side burner. Then, of course, revenue sharing came and we didn't want to take any more debt service on right now. So we're going to probably dust that off in the next two to three years after we really get this revenue share under control. And there's some income revenue streams that will be coming in from the conference and the cfp and look at that. But right now, we're going to start to chip away on some things that are on that deferred maintenance list. Bud Walton will be getting a new roof here beginning in the next four to five weeks. I know that's really exciting and sexy. We've redone the courtside club, which I think our courtside seat holders will really enjoy that amenity as we open the 2526 season up and then we'll start to chip away at some of those deferred maintenance. And I would say the major renovation is still three to five years away, best case scenario. [00:18:16] Speaker A: When Ryan White was here in May, he talked about the potential for selling seats, four seats along each bench. Is that happening this year? [00:18:25] Speaker C: It has happened. There's four seats that have been sold adjacent to the home bench and four seats that have been sold adjacent to the visiting team bench. In addition, we've moved our radio crew and the visiting radio crew up to mid court in the stands. We've created a radio booth up there. And we've sold courtside tables now on the baseline as well that will seat for each. And so again, we are leaving no stone unturned to generate revenue. [00:18:51] Speaker A: What about Bogle park and Razorback Field? Because those are projects that you've talked about, too, that have been pushed over to the side as you try to figure out the rev share. [00:18:59] Speaker C: Yeah, and I would say that those are closer to the front burner. I mean, Bogle park, we're a little over halfway to our fundraising goal of 20 million. We've got that facility designed. We need to have the money in hand to start construction. And then we have a couple of really good options. We believe in getting an elite gift for the Razorback soccer stadium operations building as well. So they're not as much on the side burner as Bud WALTON because they're $20 million. And again, we're a little over halfway for the softball project. [00:19:31] Speaker A: Dave Van Horn was talking this week and he said that he would like to see more seats at Baum Walker Stadium. And he said this before. You've heard it, I'm sure. How do you, though, right now, balance the thought of spending money to make money and having to kind of defer these projects where, you know, at Baum Walker Stadium, if you put another thousand, two thousand seats, whatever the number you put there, you know they're going to sell. How do you balance all of this? [00:19:55] Speaker C: Yeah, well, you've got to look at what's going to be the cost to add more seats and then how long is it going to take you to get your money back and what's the return on the investment there? And so, you know, if you're looking, you know, 10 to 15 years down to make your money back on whatever that rent the additional seats would be probably a cost prohibitive project with all the things that we have on the table right now. [00:20:15] Speaker A: Could you see Bomb Stadium being Baum Walker Stadium being expanded anytime in the near future? [00:20:21] Speaker C: No. [00:20:22] Speaker A: Okay. How would you. [00:20:23] Speaker C: You're gonna put that in the paper for coach Van Horn to read? I will tell you that we are adding a new video board in the left field corner at Baum Walker Stadium, a second video board. So if you've been out to the building and Mackey's base is loaded landing and some down the right field line, you have a hard time seeing the current video board that's out there in right center field. So a video board about the same size will be kind of caddy cornered there in front of the Razorb, which will be a nice addition to Bomb Walker Stadium next season. [00:20:53] Speaker A: It'll be ready for next season. [00:20:55] Speaker C: It will be ready for next season. [00:20:56] Speaker A: Will it be like up above everybody down on the hog pin level? [00:20:58] Speaker C: It will, yeah. [00:21:00] Speaker A: How would you care? And you talked about the basketball receding, but how would you characterize how all of this has gone? [00:21:07] Speaker C: Just the basketball receding? [00:21:09] Speaker A: Because, I mean, it's sure there are some people who are happy and there's a lot of people who've got hurt feelings. [00:21:14] Speaker C: I mean, first and foremost, financially has gone incredible. I mean, we couldn't have imagined that we would exceed $10 million in new annual revenue from the reseeding project. It's gone great. We're in the last week of that. It ends Friday. I know there's been some really tough conversations, really upset people here in the last two or three weeks as they've come in, because really the only remaining inventory is upstairs, upstairs in the corners, upstairs in the end zones. Not the best seats. And so there's been some really challenging conversations as of late for our Razorback foundation staff. But those folks have done an amazing job. And I mean, so we stuck to our word that if you had season tickets last year in Bud Walton, you had an opportunity to purchase season tickets again through this process. We have had some attrition based on where they were able to purchase those season tickets, but they had the opportunity and financially it's done exactly what we needed. And so I think there's more people that are pleased with where their seats are than are not pleased with where their seats are. And so I would tell you I think it's been a great success. [00:22:18] Speaker A: Could you have imagined? Because I think when I talked to Ryan when this whole reseating process started, he said that maybe pie in the sky type thing is 100 to 125 people at that $40,000 level, I think it's 211. Could you have imagined that? [00:22:33] Speaker C: We could not have. I mean, that's just a testament to our fans, our donor base and so many people that have stepped up to support our athletic program. And I mean, you think of all the things we have accomplished in the decade and it all happens because we get such great support. I mean, we have 173 suites in Razorback Stadium that are all sold out. 44 in Bud Walton arena, all sold out. The 32 in Baum Walker Stadium, all sold out. Six in softball, all sold out. And that's in one of the smallest populated states in our country. And it's just, it's amazing what our fans have done for us. [00:23:08] Speaker A: As I watch all these people watching me interview you, think about what Oklahoma's doing right now where they're selling tickets to their post game press conferences. Would you ever do anything like that? [00:23:18] Speaker C: You know what? We sold a message celebrating a divorce last week on a video board. Yes, we will sell just about anything in this day and age. Matt, did y' all see that message celebrating the divorce that was on the video board during the game? Happy congratulations on your divorce, Grant. I don't know if Grant's here, but apparently his friends thought it was great news. [00:23:43] Speaker A: What are your initial thoughts on how Rev Share has worked? [00:23:46] Speaker C: Rev Share, after we got through the pain of squeezing it into our budget, it's gone great. I mean, we assumed all of the contracts from Arkansas Edge Blueprint Sports and so they're now under the umbrella of the athletic department. We have a payment system called ramp and all of our student athletes are receiving their payments through ramp. Remy Cofield and his staff have done a great job working with agents, working with parents for any of those contracts that needed to be renegotiated. So the revenue share, which is 20 and a half million dollars of athletic department generated revenue in the SEC. To be clear, that's 20 and a half million, minus $2.5 million in new scholarships that we all committed to in the SEC. So our revenue share in the SEC this year is only 18 million because we all committed to adding $2.5 million of new scholarships for us at the University of Arkansas, that's really 76 new scholarships. Most of those were in women's sports, with the exception of roughly 14 that we added in baseball. [00:24:47] Speaker A: You and Sam Pittman have both been pretty adamant that you felt like Rev Share was going to help football, help kind of just normalize, maybe level the playing field a little bit. Has it worked that way? And what are your just general thoughts on football, where you stand right now? [00:25:02] Speaker C: Well, I'll let you know in 11 games if it's worked the way I thought it would work. Ok. But no, I think it's allowed us, when we were in December and the transfer portal and the recruiting piece, it allowed us to compete this year for some talent that we weren't able to compete with other schools last year. And so time will tell if it's worked because we have to play 11 more games. But I think Sam feels better, which makes me feel better. [00:25:30] Speaker A: You mentioned Remy Cofield earlier. There's plans to expand that GM office. Where are you at in those? [00:25:36] Speaker C: Yeah. So there's a staff of three now in our front office is what we call it. And so it's Remy Cofield who serves as a general manager for our athletic department. And then he's hired two people. Sydney Limahert, that is our player relations person, she really works on getting the contracts to the student athletes, making sure they're being fulfilled. If there's an NIL component to anything, she makes sure they're doing that work. And then Devonte Higginbottom is our NIL strategist. And it really just means he's out on the streets knocking on doors, trying to generate businesses interest in partnering with their student athletes to be brand ambassadors and generate more NIL dollars. [00:26:14] Speaker A: What's the future of nil? I mean, you've got this clearinghouse now that's supposed to, you know, determine what's legitimate, what's not. Like, what do you see nil being in a year or two versus how prevalent it's been and important it's been to the sport in the last four. [00:26:28] Speaker C: So let me blow your minds. In two months of the clearinghouse for nil. We just got the stats today. There's been 8,329 agreements approved by the clearinghouse for a total of $79.8 million in two months. That's legitimate nil on top of the 20 and a half million dollars of revenue sharing across 70 schools that just in the power four. So if you think about the amount of money that is going back to student athletes across this country, it is astounding. Astounding. $80 million in two months. And so that's why, you know, the revenue sharing piece is great and the nil is great. Now you take those numbers and the $80 million divided by the 8329, it's still less than $10,000 in agreement. Okay, so you hear these. You know, there's a couple. You've got an Arch Manning, he's Going to get a seven figure deal because he's Arch Manning and he's got a value to his name, his image and likeness because of the brand he is and the brand his family is, and that's legitimate. But most other student athletes, they don't have a huge value to their name, image and likeness. And so $10,000 is probably realistic in the way this system should work to benefit our student athletes. [00:27:50] Speaker A: I wonder if you can take us through the process of this last year when you've got the 20 and a half million to distribute, but you have to figure out the percentage that goes to each sport. And then you've also got sports where you can increase their number of scholarships. [00:28:03] Speaker C: Sure. [00:28:03] Speaker A: But it may not be the maximum number where you may not have the same number that this team that you're competing against in the conference has. Just what was that process like? [00:28:12] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, every one of our sports got something, whether it was revenue sharing or additional scholarships. So everybody got something to their bottom line. I mean, obviously it's called revenue sharing for a reason because it's your sports that generate revenue. And we have two sports that make a profit. Let's not talk about revenue that make a profit at the University of Arkansas. And it probably is the case at most institutions. Football and men's basketball, baseball sold out for the season, 32 suites sold out. We do not make a profit in baseball, as popular as that sport is for us. What we spend, salaries and expenses. Now, revenue sharing in baseball, we don't make a profit. We don't come close to making a profit. So we have two sports that make a profit, but baseball generates a significant amount of revenue that we need every year. Softball generates revenue, soccer generates revenue, gymnastics generates revenue, but they don't make a profit. And so, you know, we're going to continue to invest our revenue and our sports that generate significant revenue because our football and men's basketball programs and I share this with our coaches all the time, we got to keep feeding those engines because as long as those two can generating revenue, they will support the other 17 sports and help make them successful as well. [00:29:27] Speaker A: Let's get you out here on this. And this really. [00:29:28] Speaker C: This is the last one. [00:29:29] Speaker A: This is the last one. I promise. You got a lot that's facing your department, college athletics in general. What's the biggest thing on your plate right now? [00:29:41] Speaker C: Oh, gosh, you know, the biggest plate. The biggest thing on my plate is still the nil piece. Okay. We figured out the revenue sharing piece. We've got that fit within our budget, but it's not. The $20.5 million is not going to be enough because you're going to have to generate some nil dollars for your student athletes to continue to compete at the highest level. I mean, you hear figures that Texas Tech, whether it's true or not, spent $55 million last year. You've heard figures that Texas spent 35 to 40 million do buying their football roster this year. I don't know if any of that's true, but I tell you who thinks it's true is every one of our coaches, right? And you know, our coaches and our general manager, they play poker with parents every day because, right, the parents, the agents, the student athletes are trying to say, this is what I'm worth, this is what I think I'm worth. And the coach said, well, this is what I think you're worth. Who's going to blink first? You have no idea. I'm giving you guys some advice over here on this table. If you're getting recruited, okay? And so it's who's going to blink first. But at some point in time, you know what I hope and this is some advice for you guys. There's some kids making a significant amount of money that is life changing money. But most student athletes are still not making life changing money, but they're making life changing decisions. Thinking they're making life changing money and they're going to the wrong school, they're playing for the wrong coach and they're making a decision just based on dollars and cents and it's not life changing money. It's not going to be there in four years. And so I hope parents and the student athletes that are being recruited will take a step back and make a decision again for the right reasons. Because you know, there's a few that are making life changing money, but most are not. [00:31:32] Speaker A: Appreciate your time. [00:31:33] Speaker C: You got it. [00:31:33] Speaker A: All right. Thank you. [00:31:34] Speaker C: Thank you.