John Calipari reveals White House invite for Donald Trump's college sports roundtable

In March, President Donald Trump hosted the “Saving College Sports” roundtable at the White House. NCAA president Charlie Baker, numerous conference commissioners and several collegiate coaches attended the event.

Those in attendance discussed the current state of college athletics and shared ideas on how to improve it, with a focus on NIL. During an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show on Tuesday, Arkansas head coach John Calipari revealed he was invited to the historic roundtable.

“I was invited. I had a game,” Calipari said. “They said, ‘Well, why don’t you miss the game?’ I said, ‘Are you nuts?'”

Arkansas certainly needed Calipari for the game, which was at Missouri the day after the roundtable. The Razorbacks defeated Missouri 88-84 in overtime. The victory was the second outing in a five-game win streak to close out Arkansas’ season.

Now, the Razorbacks are heading to the Sweet Sixteen after winning their first two NCAA Tournament games. While Calipari is currently laser-focused on Arkansas’ postseason, he believes changes are necessary across the collegiate landscape.

“Every coach in every sport is challenged by this — everyone. We’re all going through the same thing,” Calipari said. “Let me say this: It falls on the coaches. It’s not on the presidents and it’s not on the ADs, because if it was, this would be fixed already, alright? It’s not been fixed. And, they say, ‘Well, they’ll take us to court.’ Let them. There some times it’s good to be sued.

“Would you really want your son to go to four different schools in four years? How do you even get to know the coach? How do you establish who you are? … And it’s all based on money. So let’s take care of the kids when they’re there and [ensure] they do well.”

John Calipari has routinely been on the cutting edge of college athletics. He popularized the “one-and-done” while at Kentucky with recruits like John Wall and Anthony Davis. Unsurprisingly, he’s also found success in the NIL era.

Calipari may need to adjust his approach again soon. At the roundtable in March, Trump announced his plans to sign an executive order that will solve the issues plaguing college sports.

“We’re going to put it forward, and we’re going to get sued, and we’re going to see how it plays, OK, but I’ll have an executive order, which will solve every problem in this room, every conceivable problem, within one week, and we’ll put it forward,” Trump said on March 6. “We will get sued. That’s the only thing I know for sure.”