John Calipari is leaving Kentucky for Arkansas, officially introduced as the new head coach of the Razorbacks Wednesday morning.

Though willingly walking away from Lexington is surprising for some, one aspect of Calipari’s journey makes a lot of sense. Pressure was mounting with the Wildcats, and he got a fresh start to try and rebuild Arkansas while signing a contract that begins at $7 million a year for 5 years. (Details of that contract show performance bonuses that could increase Calipari’s deal to 7 years.)

However, a more surprising aspect of Calipari’s reasoning for taking the job is NIL. In comments for an article with “The Athletic,” the longtime head coach said NIL will be ready-made at Arkansas.

Calipari claimed he had to go out and help with NIL personally while at Kentucky:

“The other thing to change is figuring out our roster, and you have to go in now and have NIL ready, which the school will do. I don’t have to go out and do it anymore. I had to at Kentucky,” said Calipari. “Here, we’re putting a team together now. Since I’ve had to coach a new team every year, that doesn’t bother me, but they have got to be good kids. If they’re only about themselves, we won’t recruit them, they won’t be here.

“What keeps me going is chasing championships and putting my team in the best position at the end of the year to make a run. Let’s go do this and do it together.”

For what it’s worth, Pete Nakos with On3 Sports reported Calipari is set to meet with Arkansas’ “high-level donors” after his Wednesday night press conference to discuss NIL, among other things. It was previously reported Calipari would have in excess of $5 million earmarked for NIL to work with at Arkansas, but it’s unclear how that compares to what Kentucky was working with.

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A true lack of support?

While Calipari’s claim about NIL is hard to take on the surface, at least a few individuals believe there was a growing lack of support for the head coach in Lexington. DeMarcus Cousins, a star contributor on Calipari’s 2009-10 team that went 35-3, believes Cal was beginning to feel a lack of support from Wildcat leadership.

“I don’t feel like he had the school’s backing,” Cousins said per The Athletic. “There’s a lot of things going on behind the scenes, adjusting to the modern times of college basketball now. It’s more so at the top, I just don’t feel like the support was there. This situation could have been handled a lot more gracefully, especially for as much as he’s done for them.”

Even Tom Izzo, Michigan State’s longtime head coach, felt what happened is sad, referencing something that happens at organizations “from the top down.”

“Cal gets taken for granted… It’s just harder to do your job when you’re not aligned,” explained Izzo. “There was a disconnect. There’s always two sides to every divorce. This new opportunity is going to rejuvenate Cal.”

Is the perceived lack of support personally related to Calipari, or is there something deeper going on at UK? The answer will likely come quickly once the Wildcats land on their new head coach, but one thing is clear.

Calipari sees increased support at Arkansas, and that’s a major reason why he’s now in Fayetteville.