Rick Pitino has certainly had his issues with the NCAA in the past. He had a national championship vacated for recruiting violations and was fired from Louisville following an FBI investigation into the corruption in college basketball recruiting. And now, he’s calling out the NCAA.
As the NCAA continues to face legal battles regarding its name, image, and likeness rules, Rick Pitino thinks that the NCAA’s enforcement staff should simply be disbanded, calling it “a joke.”
“It’s a very difficult time in college basketball, because it’s free agency,” Pitino said Saturday according to ESPN. “And now I think what’s going to happen is, they’re going to say everybody can transfer, and then if they don’t like it, they’re going to take ’em to court.
“So I think the NCAA enforcement staff just should be disbanded. It’s a joke. Not because I dislike them. But they’re of no value anymore. Because just, Tennessee now will take ’em to court, Virginia will take ’em to court.”
Pitino said that the NCAA is toothless to be able to enforce anything, so they should simply stop trying to enforce anything.
“The enforcement staff needs to go away,” Pitino said. “We need to stop all the hypocrisy of NIL. We need to stop it. Because they can’t stop it. Whether I’m for it or against it doesn’t matter.
“They are professional athletes. Get professionally paid. It’s not going away. You can’t try to get loopholes, because they take you to court. That’s why I say — so I’m not knocking the enforcement staff — they’re going to get taken to 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 build programs and a culture because everybody leaves.”
[ESPN]
