St. John's basketball coach Rick Pitino is offering some suggestions to help fix the game of basketball. Pitino would like to see a salary cap implemented in college basketball for the power 5 conferences, per his social media. Pitino is suggesting a salary cap of $1.5 to $2 million for the Big East along with the four remaining power conferences following the 2024 season.
“All contracts delivered to the league and school offices. All other conferences establish their own salary cap. I would never exclude anyone from the NCAA tournament,” Rick Pitino posted. “Obviously football is a different sport entirely and some of their talent makes more than NFL players.”
Pitino is also promising to offer more solutions in the coming days for college basketball, but didn't specify anything else. The suggestion is the latest in a long line of solutions being proffered to bring more stability and revenue to college basketball. The NCAA is looking at possibly allowing schools to enter directly into NIL agreements with athletes, while a court decision is opening the door for college athletes to bargain collectively with schools, as university employees. The tide seems to be moving toward paying college athletes more money for their services, like professional athletes.
Rick Pitino is in his first year back in high-major basketball at St. John's. Pitino has spoken out consistently about reforming basketball, and has gone so far to say that the NCAA should stop enforcing many of its own rules against schools.
“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,” Pitino said, per the San Diego Union Tribune.
Time will certainly tell how the NCAA chooses to govern college athletics in this evolving landscape.
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