Following Arkansas’ 103-74 victory over James Madison on Monday, John Calipari was asked about the NCAA allowing James Nnaji to play for Baylor, despite the 7-foot center having previously been selected in the 2023 NBA Draft.
The reporter got an answer, and then some.
Over the course of a nearly seven-minute rant, the Hall of Fame head coach opined on the current state of college basketball. Suffice it to say, Calipari isn’t a fan, as he called attention to what he sees as a sliding scale of rules that negatively impacts the overall health of the game.
“I’ve got friends that are playing with 27-year-olds and they feel bad and I said, ‘don’t feel bad. We don’t have any rules. Why should you feel bad?’” the Razorbacks head coach said. “But let me give you this. Real simple: the rules bees the rules. So if you put your name in the draft, I don’t care if you’re from Russia and you stay in the draft, you can’t play college basketball. ‘Well, that’s only for American kids.’ What? If your name is in that draft and you got drafted, you can’t play college because that’s our rule. ‘Yeah, but that’s only for American kids.’ OK. OK.”
Calipari further questioned the NCAA’s rules regarding eligibility, suggesting that it adhere to a policy in which players get five years to play four seasons, but are also allowed a to play a fifth season if they remain at the same school throughout their entire tenure. He also advocated for players being permitted to transfer without penalty once and again if their head coach leaves or is fired, but said that they should also be required to sit out a year if they transfer after that.
The 2012 national champion head coach then circled back to his larger point, which is the impact that these seemingly subjective rules are having on American high school prospects. In Calipari’s eyes, there is no longer any on-court incentive to recruit such players, when older pro-level prospects who previously weren’t believed to be eligible are now being permitted to play.
“Does anybody care what this is doing for 17 and 18-year-old American kids? Do you know what this opportunity has done for them and their families?” he asked. “There aren’t gonna be any high school kids. Who, other than dumb people like me, are gonna recruit high school kids? I get so much satisfaction out of coaching young kids and seeing them grow and make it and their family life changes that I’m gonna keep doing it. But why would anybody else, if you can get NBA players, G-League players, guys that are 28 years old, guys from Europe — do we really know their transcript? Do we have somebody over there? Do we really know their birth certificate? Or don’t we?”
John Calipari goes OFF for nearly SEVEN MINUTES about current state of college athletics & the Trentyn Flowers story in CBB. I haven’t seen him this fired up in a press conference…ever? pic.twitter.com/oEjuuXPWIu
— John Nabors (@JohnNaborsShow) December 30, 2025
Calipari wasn’t done offering suggestions.
In an apparent reference to the situation involving Trentyn Flowers, he called for the NCAA to stop allowing players to join programs mid-season. He also said that while he doesn’t think NIL collectives should be involved in recruiting players to campuses, he does believe they should be allowed to help keep kids from transferring once they’re enrolled.
Calipari admitted that some of his suggestions are selfish, largely because his son has begun his own coaching career. His biggest point, however, is that there are obvious rules the NCAA can make that would not only improve the sport, but the quality of life of its players, and that the organization shouldn’t have to wait for the government to get involved before enacting such changes.
“ We can do it without having Congress and the Senate getting 60 votes,” he said. “We can do that. Let them sue us on that stuff.”
