Is NIL good or bad? That question will never have a one-sided answer because everything has pros and cons. For coaches like John Calipari, it’s something they can take advantage of to recruit top players. But does more money equal better performance? ‘You get what you paid for,’ they often say, but will that always hold true? And has Calipari’s tactic even worked for Arkansas so far?

Not really, in simple terms. In the latest AP poll, the Razorbacks are nowhere to be seen in the top 25 as they ranked 27. Despite consecutive wins against No. 14 Michigan and Central Arkansas, the new team is still figuring it out with their new coach. No wonder the hosts of the Mark Titus Show are in disbelief as they look at team rankings, both in the NCAA and KenPom.

Brandon Walker points out, “Arkansas, who’s a tournament team, is 40th. They’re the twelfth-ranked team in the conference right now on KenPom.” The episode is from Dec. 17th and the current NCAA rankings actually show Arkansas down to 48th but remain 40th on KenPom at the time of writing.

Well, where is the “‘at least’ $5 million annually in NIL fund” that was being allotted to Coach Calipari? Not showing up on rankings anyway.

There is Nelly Davis with the reported $1 million offered to him to transfer from Florida to Fayetteville. There is also Boogie Fland but Calipari’s young squad is still struggling to make a place for itself. In a recent episode of The Field of 68: After Dark, Jeff Goodman discusses NIL’s impact on college coaches and players.

“I think now, coaches are looking at this and saying – Kansas State, Arkansas, Indiana – three schools that have spent a ton of money and haven’t really gotten a return investment. You don’t necessarily need 5 million. You need to be smart…and winning is ultimately the biggest thing.”

He had said something similar in a previous episode, “Just because you have a big payroll…it doesn’t mean you’re gonna win. So you have to be smart in how you go about it and put together a team that fits.”

Calipari had said something to the same effect before the season even began, putting more emphasis on the players than NIL.

The allure of John Calipari has changed from NBA to NIL

Not many have seen the ups and downs of college recruiting better than John Calipari. His so-called one-and-done season in Kentucky drew some heat but things are even harder in the NIL era now. “I met with the team. There is no team,” he had deadpanned in April. He gets that this will be a journey to change the Razorbacks and might take more than one season to put together.

But he doesn’t want only NIL to figure into it. Before the season began, the coach sat down with former Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski on his Sirius XM radio show, “If a kid says to me, ‘Well, what’s the number?’ Well, I’m probably not taking that kid. If that’s all it’s about – NIL – there are other places they can go.”

Arkansas still has a $5 million NIL gamble to play with but how far will that take the Razorbacks? Calipari is all about wanting to make it better for the student-athletes but like Goodman pointed out, those athletes will have to fit together if they are really to be a winning team.