Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano reacts to Rick Pitino’s NIL proposals: ‘The problem with NIL is just way that it’s formatted’
Greg Schiano believes that college athletes deserve to be paid, but he said that there is “unruliness” when it comes to Name, Image and Likeness. The Rutgers football head coach laid out his thoughts while appearing on PIX 11 with Marc Malusis and Nelson Figueroa Jr.
Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) is the predominant driving force in this new era of college athletics. This, along with the transfer portal, has led to massive changes in college football and across the athletics landscape.
On Tuesday, St. John’s basketball head coach Rick Pitino made headlines with his suggestions that the Power Five and the Big East should come together to create a league where players are paid directly by the school (with a salary cap).
Schiano agreed with Pitino that NIL is powerful and should exist. However, the Rutgers coach said that the implementation of NIL has led to the current state of unrest in college athletics.
Ok – we all want solutions to preserve our great game. Today I’m going to suggest solution one:
For basketball – have the Power 5 & Big East conference commissioners get together and create a salary cap between 1.5 n 2.0 million. All contracts delivered to the league and school…
— Rick Pitino (@RealPitino) February 6, 2024
The original intent of NIL is not being fulfilled in the way things are currently set up.
“Well, it’s certainly a transformational time, right? I mean, players are -you know, I’ve always thought players should have been paid my whole career. I always thought it was not right the way things were done in college athletics,” Schiano said to a question from Malusis.
“We probably could have taken care of this a long time ago and not had the unruliness that we have right now. I think the problem with NIL is just the way that it’s formatted. It’s -in theory, it’s not a bad issue at all. It’s actually what’s right. It’s just the way that it’s being executed.”
Pitino’s tweets on Tuesday also suggested that players sign a multi-year contract, thereby cutting down on the rampant use of the transfer portal which makes things difficult for college coaches to build teams.
Remember this is only food for thought. All possible solutions.
Solution 2:
Do away with letters of intent, make athletes sign a two year binding contract, no different than professional athletes – which they are. With that, the collective puts together their NIL contract based…
— Rick Pitino (@RealPitino) February 6, 2024
Schiano addressed the portal as well, even drawing a correlation between the portal and coaches leaving a program.
“Now on the transfer portal. You know, I think guys should be able to go if they don’t want to be at their school and not be penalized, I think maybe unlimited is a little different,” Schiano said.
“You know, guys, they said, ‘Well, coaches can leave.’ But the reality is when coaches leave, they pay a pretty hefty…they ao their next employer plays a pretty hefty buyout to get them.
“I think eventually things are going to settle where they need to be but hold on right now because it’s just a transformational time in college athletics is probably there’s ever been.”
Given the recent ruling by the National Labor Relations Board, the landscape of major college athletics is on the precipice of massive change. Tuesday on “SportsNation Nightly’ @Rutgers Head Football Coach Greg Schiano joined @MarcMalusis and @FiggieNY to discuss what lies ahead pic.twitter.com/axIasGwVwS
— PIX11 Sports (@PIX11Sports) February 7, 2024
While playing the second-toughest schedule in college football, Schiano led Rutgers to a 7-6 (3-6 Big Ten) record this past season. They defeated Miami in the Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl to mark the program’s first postseason victory since 2014.
