With legal disputes escalating over the use of name, image and likeness compensation in the recruiting of college athletes, Hall of Fame basketball coach Rick Pitino believes it is time for the NCAA to back off when it comes to monitor member schools.
“It's a very difficult time in college basketball, because it's free agency,” the first-year St. John's coach said Saturday. “And now I think what's going to happen is they're going to say everyone can transfer, and then if they don't like it, they're going to take them to court.
“So I think the NCAA law enforcement staff should be disbanded. It's a joke. Not because I don't like them. But they have no value anymore. Because now Tennessee will take them to court, Virginia will take them to the courts. courts”. court.”
The attorneys general of Tennessee and Virginia on Wednesday filed an antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA challenging its ban on the use of NIL compensation in recruiting and in response to the association's investigation into the University of Tennessee.
A judge will hear his request on Feb. 13 for a preliminary injunction that would suspend NCAA rules prohibiting recruiting incentives and pay-for-play, the court posted Friday.
Meanwhile, the NCAA asked a judge to deny both motions in its 25-page response filed Saturday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee.
Pitino, 71, expressed his thoughts on the NCAA following his team's 77-64 loss to top-ranked UConn at Madison Square Garden. His comments came at the postgame news conference in response to a reporter's question about how to stoke a renewed rivalry with the powerful Huskies, the defending national champions, while rebuilding St. John's program.
“Law enforcement personnel must go,” Pitino said. “We need to stop all NIL's hypocrisy. We need to stop it. Because they can't stop it. It doesn't matter if I'm for it or against it.
“They're professional athletes. They get paid professionally. That's not going to go away. You can't try to find loopholes, because they take you to court. That's why I say, not to criticize law enforcement personnel, they.” “They're going to take them to the court every time they try to make a rule. So it's a tough time in college basketball right now. And for us, you can't really create programs and a culture because everyone leaves.”
Pitino, who won national championships at Kentucky in 1996 and Louisville in 2013, has had a history of clashing with the NCAA.
The title at Louisville was vacated for NCAA violations, and another NCAA case related to the FBI investigation into corruption in college basketball recruiting led to Louisville firing him in 2017.
The final ruling by the NCAA's external enforcement arm on the FBI case was issued in November 2022 and exonerated Pitino.
After leaving Iona in March 2023 to take the St. John's job, Pitino brought in 12 new players for this season, including 10 transfers. But he said the current college landscape involving NIL and the transfer portal makes it “very difficult” to build a consistent culture in a high-level program.
“I think a lot of football coaches and basketball coaches are leaving because of this culture,” Pitino said. “It's hard to create a program. You have to really innovate, be creative and understand these rules right now… or the lack of rules.”
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
