John Calipari updates coaching future amid NIL era: 'If it gets transactional, I'm done'

At 66 years old, John Calipari knows he’s nearing the end of his illustrious collegiate coaching career.

But, at a time when several of his veteran coaching peers — namely Jay Wright, Tony Bennett, and, most recently, Bruce Pearl — have stepped away in part due to the changing landscape of the sport, the second-year Arkansas head coach isn’t currently contemplating retirement.

At least not as long as Calipari still feels like he’s able to coach the way he wants.

“If we stay transformational, I can still so this. I feel good. They say biologically I’m 48, so I’m good. But … I tell these guys, if it gets transactional, I’m done,” Calipari said Tuesday afternoon on the SEC Nation set from SEC Media Days in Birmingham. “We’ve already done a lot, but as long as it stays that way, then I can help these two and the other players on our team get where they’re trying to go.

“Now winning is a big part of it. If we’re winning at a high level, everybody eats,” Calipari continued. “And if we’re not because we’re not together and connected, then we’re hurting each other. That’s my job. This team, we’re not that good right now. But we’ve got good players, and we’ve got talent.”

Calipari and the Razorbacks enter Year 2 in Fayetteville with high hopes as the SEC’s fifth-ranked team according to the projected order of finish released by the league Monday. Still, he’ll do so while trying to replace two key playmakers off last year’s roster hit the transfer portal this offseason: guard Boggie Fland (Florida) and center Zvonimir Ivisic (Illinois).

“I want to help 25 to 30 more families,” Calipari added Tuesday at the podium, according to ESPN. “The only way you do that is to be transformational as a coach. If you’re not, you’re transactional. If I become transactional — ‘I’m going to pay you this to do this and that’ — then I won’t do this anymore. I don’t need to.

“That’s why if someone puts their name in the portal, I say, ‘You’re not coming back,’ because it’s not going to be transactional.”

John Calipari on tournament expansion: ‘Leave that unknown alone’

Earlier this month, Yahoo! Sports‘ Ross Dellenger reported a 76-team NCAA Tournament is growing closer to becoming a reality. At SEC Media Days on Tuesday, Arkansas head coach John Calipari weighed in on the notion of expanding the NCAA Tournament.

“I just think you leave it how it is because if it’s not broken, go with the known, leave that unknown alone,” Calipari said. “We don’t know what will happen to it. I don’t, and I’m not worried about money or anything else.

“I still don’t know what all this transfer stuff and all the eligibility stuff’s going to do… They could have a mid-major team that’s average age is 26. They’re pretty good. And all of a sudden they get to advance. It may be NIL has killed all the mid-major schools. None of the kids are staying in mid-major. I don’t know. It’s going to end up playing out. But I would leave the tournament alone, but that’s just me.”

If the tournament expanded to include 76 teams, eight games would reportedly be added to the Big Dance. Those eight games would be play-in games similar to the current “First Four.”

The 12 games would be played at two locations over the course of two days. NCAA executives reportedly want the first round of the tournament to still only include 64 teams, but provide more opportunities to other worthy team to play their way into the beloved event.

— On3’s Grant Grubbs contributed to this report.