St John’s coach Rick Pitino expressed his feelings on establishing a college basketball salary cap just a day after a historic ruling that could potentially change the entire scenario around collegiate sports by allowing NCAA athletes to unionize. Pitino wants to establish College Basketball’s Salary cap as he believes it is the only way to improve college basketball.
Rick Pitino wants to establish a salary cap of almost $ 2 million
He wants a salary cap between $1.5 million and $2 million for the Big East and Power Five conferences, Pitino also expressed how he believes different conferences should also have the freedom of establishing their own salary cap.
Rick Pitino wants a salary cap for college basketball ‘to preserve our great game’ https://t.co/ZYBB6alTOG pic.twitter.com/HaWramj8sV
— New York Post (@nypost) February 6, 2024
Though Pitino has expressed his desire to establish a salary cap, he did not go into the details about the distribution of the money.
“For basketball, have the Power 5 [and] Big East conference commissioners get together and create a salary cap between [$1.5 and $2 million],” Pitino tweeted. “All contracts delivered to the league and school offices.”
Rick Pitino did not suggest splitting up the major conferences from the other schools, he instead stated that the cap should be different for those leagues
“All other conferences establish their own salary cap,” he tweeted. “I would never exclude anyone from the NCAA tournament. Obviously, football is a different sport entirely and some of their talent makes more than NFL players. More solutions to follow in the coming days.”
The 71-year-old basketball coach’s comments came after the National Labor Relations Board ruled Monday that Dartmouth men’s basketball players can be considered employees of the school and can vote to unionize. It is evident that Pitino too believes in the necessity of unions in College basketball, especially in these times of uncertainty.
Rick Pitino’s idea to establish a salary cap in college football gets mixed reactions from the fans
Fans had divided opinions on Rick Pitino’s comments as some supported him and some showered him with criticisms
“Let’s start with coaches.” One user wrote on x (Previously Twitter)
“How about controlling how much basketball players can be paid under the “name image likeness” laws? Although I think he and I are basically saying the same thing” another fan added conforming to Pitino’s idea .
“This the same dude who was getting his players hookers?” a Twitter user wrote.
Only time will tell if Rick Pitino’s idea will get implemented or if things will go like they used to.
