With less than two weeks to go until the college basketball season begins, there is still uncertainty surrounding eligibility for several reasons. St. John’s coach Rick Pitino has issues, but mostly how the NCAA handled rule changes and legal challenges.
Pitino said Jon Rothstein He sees comments from other coaches who are not happy with the NCAA’s, given the status quo. However, it is his calculation that the schools are part of the association, although he has recognized “mistakes” regarding eligibility.
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For Pitino, it was a chance to line up the NCAA lineup — especially when it came to professional athletes — and it wasn’t. As a result, he wondered why the governing body would continue to fight lawsuits, while also lobbying for the Protect the College Sports Act in Congress.
“A lot of coaches are upset in the NCAA and then knocking the NCAA,” Pitino said on CBS Sports’ Enter College Basketball Now. “Here’s what you have to understand, we are the NCAA. We are part of this college. The NCAA just offended some people, because in the last second with this everyone is caught. Now if the NCAA said on November 15, “We are going to suffer this class to play for the fifth year”, this would be no.
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“If the NCAA said, ‘Anyone who practices any form of basketball in Europe or overseas in Australia cannot play collegiate basketball,’ we would have nothing to do with that. But they don’t say that. I really don’t understand why they’re fighting all this. They just say, ‘Next year, we’ll allow it.'”
Rick Pitino: ‘I’m not confident going to Congress’
While fighting sports on the court, the Protector of College Sports Act is also looking at the House of Representatives. The bipartisan committee passed the Senate last month, but the House is not expected to return until after the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
Pitino, though, argued that Congress should not be responsible for college sports. The lobby asked for a decision in favor of federal laws. But the leaders of the conference said they would unite and chart a course with concrete rules to move forward while also being prepared for litigation.
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“I’m not a believer in going to Congress because I think you’re wasting your time. … You’re relying on Congress to fix problems,” Pitino said. “It’s like I’m going to go to a New York state senator and say, ‘Can you help me with the challenge of shooting my horses?’ Can you help them with the turnovers?” It’s taken care of our business. What’s going to happen is the president should get with all the commissioners, the five big commissioners, and say we’re all in this together. We’re going to form the rules. … Today we’re leaving here, we’re doing this. You can transfer one time. This is what we’re doing. They want to take the court, we’ll fight it. But we’re closed in. If you want to fight, agree to the games.
“That’s what we need to do because you know what’s going to happen? Congress gets us in, the Democrats have to kick the ass of the Republicans in the middle and we’re going to have all the Democrats — and by the way, the Democrats want to make restrictions on what we do as coaches. Suddenly, we change feelings.”