Rick Pitino says NCAA enforcement arm ‘of no worth anymore’

NEW YORK — With authorized disputes escalating over the usage of identify, picture and likeness compensation within the recruitment of school athletes, Corridor of Fame basketball coach Rick Pitino believes it is time for the NCAA to face down in terms of policing member colleges.

“It is a very troublesome time in school basketball, as a result of it is free company,” the first-year St. John’s coach mentioned Saturday. “And now I feel what is going on to occur is, they’ll say everyone can switch, after which if they do not prefer it, they’ll take ’em to court docket.

“So, I feel the NCAA enforcement employees simply must be disbanded. It is a joke. Not as a result of I dislike them. However they’re of no worth anymore. As a result of simply, Tennessee now will take ’em to court docket, Virginia will take ’em to court docket.”

The attorneys normal of Tennessee and Virginia filed an antitrust lawsuit towards the NCAA on Wednesday that challenged its ban on the usage of NIL compensation in recruiting, and in response to the affiliation’s investigation of the College of Tennessee.

A decide will hear their request on Feb. 13 for a preliminary injunction that may placed on maintain NCAA guidelines banning recruiting inducements and pay-for-play, the court docket posted Friday.

The NCAA, in the meantime, requested a decide to disclaim each motions in its 25-page response filed Saturday with the U.S. District Court docket of the Japanese District of Tennessee.

Pitino, 71, volunteered his ideas on the NCAA following his crew’s 77-64 loss to top-ranked UConn at Madison Sq. Backyard. His feedback got here on the postgame information convention in response to a reporter’s query about stoking a renewed rivalry with the powerhouse Huskies, the defending nationwide champions, as he rebuilds the St. John’s program.

“The enforcement employees must go away,” Pitino mentioned. “We have to cease all of the hypocrisy of NIL. We have to cease it. As a result of they can not cease it. Whether or not I am for it or towards it would not matter.

“They’re skilled athletes. Get professionally paid. It is not going away. You’ll be able to’t attempt to get loopholes, as a result of they take you to court docket. That is why I say — so I am not knocking the enforcement employees — they’ll get taken to court docket each time they attempt to make a rule. So it is a robust time in school basketball proper now. And for us, you possibly can’t actually construct applications and a tradition as a result of everyone leaves.”

Pitino, who received nationwide championships at Kentucky in 1996 and Louisville in 2013, has had his personal historical past of run-ins with the NCAA.

The title at Louisville was vacated for NCAA violations, and one other NCAA case associated to the FBI’s investigation into corruption in school basketball recruiting led to him being fired by Louisville in 2017.

The ultimate ruling from the NCAA’s exterior enforcement arm on the FBI case got here down in November 2022 and exonerated Pitino.

After leaving Iona in March 2023 to take the St. John’s job, Pitino introduced in 12 new gamers for this season — together with 10 transfers. However he mentioned the present school panorama involving NIL and the switch portal makes it “very robust” to construct a constant tradition at a high-level program.

“I feel so many soccer coaches are getting out, so many basketball coaches are getting out, due to this tradition,” Pitino mentioned. “It is robust to construct a program. You have to actually innovate, get artistic and perceive these guidelines proper now — or lack of guidelines.”

Data from The Related Press was used on this report.