re: “I blame the negative fanbase for these instate football misses”

Arkansas Edge isn't fairing so well, FWIW

We can't even land in state recruits.

Chris Bauer stepping down from director at Arkansas edge

Arkansas hasn't won a conference championship in over 30 years and has only finished in the top 25 a few times in that span.

The prestige and reputation of the program is so bad for so long that high level recruits don't take visits here. Just pay more money and they will come here right? Well other programs have money and probably more of it. The problem is that these recruits and high level transfers still want to go to programs that are winners and a 4-8 program isn't in the discussion.

This is why Arkansas needs to hire above average coaches that can win more with less talent and Sam Pittman isn't the one to do it.

I'm pretty sure Jerry has donated plenty of money to Arkansas but like anyone else is tired of the losing and may become hesitant to donate in the future.

All these SEC programs have money like the Tysons and Hunts but they have more of them available. Then you do the math look at the population of these states and they have more alumni and fans than Arkansas. Which means they got a lot more money to spend.

Phil Knight has been throwing his massive wealth into Oregon for decades and they still can't get the players to win a NC. They already hit a ceiling.
The aggies spent millions and millions of dollars on a recruiting class only for them to hit the portal. Why? All they wanted is the money but A&M is a loser program and they ain't sticking around to play for one either. So they transfered to better programs.

The lesson is that trying to spend more money than the competition doesn't always lead to more success and doesn't mean recruits or transfers will be interested in your program. See the example of Cam Newton when State offered more money than Auburn. But he was never going to a historically bad program like State who hasn't won an SEC title in over 80 years when he could go to much better programs. Sometimes the prestige of these programs are just as important as the money.

The worst thing that could happen to Arkansas football is the NIL and the portal. Before that I believed Arkansas had a fighting chance if they could hire the right coach. But now they need both. NIL makes the Arkansas job harder than it already is because the head coach has to act as the fundraiser and that is very hard at a place like Arkansas that doesn't have as deep of pockets as other programs nor do they have as much fans to pick up the slack.

Can Arkansas get better? Yes it isn't completely hopeless but Arkansas needs to find loopholes that will give them a better chance to compete instead of trying to do the arms race of money that they are unable to compete in.

Son of a....

I am getting old, old I tell ya, and I wish our education system did a better job explaining to folks how to speak proper/write properly so old farts like me could have a clue what is happening here.

Do I have an interpreter here?

Hopefully soon this whole coaching staff will just go away.

In fiscal year 2023, the Arkansas Razorbacks football program generated a profit of $31.01 million. The program had total operating revenue of $84.95 million and expenses of $53.94 million. The overall athletics department, however, broke even for the year, with both revenue and expenses totaling $171.1 million? (Talk Business & Politics)? (Arkansas Razorbacks).

I saw the $167 mil number a few days ago, not sure where. But yes, I'm not an accountant, I used the wrong terminology. $167 REVENUE. The above however is what ChatGPT found.

As bad as football has been, it still makes the money that fuels the entire athletic program. As long as it does, the AD has no incentive to make expensive changes. That was my point.