Arkansas State holds first “State of the Pack Live”

JONESBORO, Ark. (KAIT) - Arkansas State had a digital town hall of sorts to update the progress inside the den. The first State of the Pack Live was held Wednesday night.

There’s a couple interesting headlines from the nearly two hour zoom program. A collective is in the works for A-State student-athletes to capitalize on name, image, and likeness. It’ll be called the IMPACKT Club. Pro Bowl linebacker and A-State great Demario Davis will be involved in that NIL program, more details will be announced soon.

Speaking of football, circle Saturday, April 15th on the calendar. That will be the date of the Arkansas State Spring Game.

State of the Pack Live featured a fans Q&A session. Vice Chancellor of Intercollegiate Athletes Jeff Purinton was asked about A-State possibly adding new sports down the road.

“Softball, I know it had been discussed even before I got here,” Purinton said. “There were some preliminary plans in place. I think we need to restart some of those discussions. We’re going to have to figure out facilities, first and foremost. And then you need to have a runway in terms of hiring a coach and staff, start recruiting. You couldn’t just start it and be ready to go Day 1. But I think from a Title IX perspective, we have a review coming up. I think that’s one of the things that we will need to address in terms of adding a women’s sport. We know there’s costs associated with that. Softball and beach volleyball as well, gets brought up, there’s some other options on the table. For me, softball, people are passionate about it in this part of the country for sure.”

A-State is also exploring options in terms of where the Red Wolves will play baseball.

“I know there were some drawings done (before I arrived), but that was pretty much it,” Purinton said. “So we’re trying to figure out what was done in that regard. Location, do we stay where we are, is there a better location? Do we do something downtown, something with the city? I think we need to explore all options, and we’re currently doing that. We’ve had some meetings on that.”

Chancellor Dr. Todd Shields, Deputy AD for Development and Revenue Generation Brandon Cunningham, head football coach Butch Jones, head track & field coach Dr. Jim Patchell, and student-athletes Izzy Higginbottom, Justin Parks, and Olivia Schmidt also participated in State of the Pack Live.

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