Category Archives: Sports

Senate takes first step in college sports fix

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Tiffany Wright, Henderson State, Trump dividend, Issue 3, Protect College Sports ActDid the U.S. Senate take a step toward restoring sanity to college athletics Monday? Arkansas’ two senators, Republicans Tom Cotton and John Boozman, believe it did. So does John Calipari, the University of Arkansas’ head men’s basketball coach.

Boozman, who played football for the Razorbacks, and Cotton both voted for the Protect College Sports Act. The vote was 77-22, with both Republicans and Democrats voting yes.

The bill would provide the NCAA with an antitrust exemption that would help it enforce limits on how much colleges and universities can pay players. It also would increase that limit to about $49 million, of which $5 million would go to Olympic and nonrevenue sports. Everything is currently being done under a court settlement, including a $21.5 million salary cap that some schools have circumvented – obviously, based on scoreboard results. Players could compete over five years beginning when they finish high school or reach age 19. They could transfer once without penalty during their careers. The bill also would limit each conference to 20 teams. 

Notably, an amendment to limit coaches’ salaries to $5 million failed. Continue reading →

Low expectations for Hogs good for Silverfield

Ryan Silverfield expectationsIt can be an advantage when people have low expectations of you, especially when you’re Ryan Silverfield.

The new Arkansas Razorbacks head football coach leads a program of which few expect much this year, to his benefit. The Razorbacks are coming off a season where they finished 2-10 overall and 0-8 in the Southeastern Conference. It was the fourth 0-8 conference record since 2013. The Hogs have won one SEC home game in three years.

Things aren’t expected to get much better. ESPN says the Razorbacks have the nation’s toughest schedule this year. Media types who cover the SEC picked the Hogs to finish last among 16 teams.

Silverfield, 46, wisely didn’t make pie-in-the-sky predictions as he prepared for the season opener against North Alabama Sept. 5. Instead, he promised the Little Rock Touchdown Club Aug. 24 only a “special, special year” and a bright future.  Continue reading →

Sanders: Run for president has crossed her mind

When Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders makes an honest statement when asked about someday maybe running for president (“Certainly, you know, things cross your mind”), it’s worth a mention. 

Sanders made the comment in response to a direct question by Politico national reporter Jonathan Martin. She was the first interview subject in his new “On the Road with Jonathan Martin” series, where he is traveling the country talking to political types while enjoying local cuisine. They did the 40-minute interview at Wright’s Barbecue in Little Rock with a tempting plate of food sitting on the table in front of them.

Martin referenced a comment by one of Sanders’ friends that a Democrat probably will be elected president in 2028, but that Sanders will be out of office after the 2030 elections and her children will be grown. (“Almost,” she corrected.) In 2032, could she be a candidate?

In response, Sanders said, “I think in any job, especially one like that I have right now in public service, your goal, your focus has to be to do a really good job in the role that you have, and see what happens from there. So my focus is Arkansas and helping us move to the top and take it from that point.”

When Martin rephrased the question, Sanders replied, “Certainly, you know, things cross your mind,” but she added that she had never thought she would be the White House press secretary or even the governor despite growing up in a political family.  Continue reading →

Hogs Coach Silverfield seeks players; legislators seek answers

NFL, Ryan SilverfieldNew 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. Continue reading →

The University of Arkansas’ ‘radical shift’

By Steve Brawner, © 2026 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

What happened January 28 at the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees meeting was indeed a “radical shift.”

That’s how one trustee, Judd Deere, accurately described it in speaking later to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

The board voted to transfer somewhere between $10 million and $11 million annually from university operations to the athletic department. The vote was 7-3, with Deere one of the three voting no.

The shift is occurring in two ways. First, the trustees’ resolution ends the athletic department’s annual transfer of funding to the university, which has averaged $4.4 million the last three years. Second, the resolution calls on Chancellor Dr. Charles Robinson and Athletic Director Hunter Yurachek to create a plan for the university to generate $6 million annually for the athletic department. 

Robinson and Yurachek said they had not seen the resolution prior to the meeting.

What made this shift “radical” is the fact that the UA has long taken pride in being one of a small number of major universities nationwide that hasn’t subsidized its athletic department.  Continue reading →