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St. John’s Coach Rick Pitino On NIL, Transfer Portal: ‘Complaining is of No Value’

Rick Pitino took St. John’s from being a team that was nowhere to be found in the NCAA Tournament conversation to a No. 2 seed in just two seasons. How did Pitino get the Red Storm to rise to prominence so quickly? Living in the reality of NIL and the transfer portal, rather than fighting […]

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Rick Pitino took St. John’s from being a team that was nowhere to be found in the NCAA Tournament conversation to a No. 2 seed in just two seasons.

How did Pitino get the Red Storm to rise to prominence so quickly? Living in the reality of NIL and the transfer portal, rather than fighting it.

“I felt the change was here and quitting, resigning, complaining is of no value,” Pitino said about NIL on Wednesday’s edition of “The Herd.” “You have to win the day. You have to get the job done, and I just felt that ‘Okay, we’re going to use it to the best of our abilities at St. John’s.’ 

“So, we’re an urban school; we’re a computer school; we play in Madison Square Garden as our home court: How can we maximize our potential by embracing the NIL and the transfer portal? We went away from high school basketball players, although we have taken one or two to develop, but by and large we’ve gone after older players.”

Pitino also expressed that parents have never been more involved in the recruiting process than now.

On the basketball front, Pitino explained what his practices look like.

“We have player development sessions every morning, Monday through Friday, where we go three-to-four different sessions with four players, and we try to take players like a Donovan Mitchell, a Terry Rozier who maybe’s not ranked top-20 or 25 in high school, and they’ve got a little bit of a weakness. Donovan Mitchell had a weakness with the arc on his jump shot. Everybody’s got a weakness coming out that’s not top 10, so we try to take those player development sessions and make the players better,” Pitino said.

“Our practices, yes, are very difficult, but I will say this: They’re not long. We don’t go more than two hours, but we go hard for two hours. We’re up and down for two hours. If I make a comment or a correction, it’s going to be within 12 seconds, and then we’re moving on because conditioning is a gigantic part of our style of play.”

After going 20-13 in the 2023-24 season, Pitino and the Red Storm put together a 31-5 campaign highlighted by winning the Big East regular-season title with an 18-2 conference record, winning the Big East Tournament and claiming a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. While St. John’s was upset in the second round by No. 10 seed Arkansas, the 2024-25 season marked the first time in six years that the program had made the NCAA Tournament and the first time in 10 years that it had done so without having to play in the First Four round.

On the personal front, Pitino won the 2024-25 Naismith, AP and Big East Coach of the Year awards. St. John’s is Pitino’s sixth full-time men’s college basketball head-coaching gig, with the Hall of Famer previously coaching three seasons at Iona before leaving for Queens in March 2023. 

St. John’s had a gargantuan transfer portal class this offseason, reeling in former five-star recruits and now sophomores Ian Jackson (previously of North Carolina) and Joson Sanon (previously of Arizona State), former Providence forward Bryce Hopkins, former Cincinnati forward Dillon Mitchell and former Stanford wing Oziyah Sellers, among others. 247Sports ranks St. John’s transfer class as the best in men’s college basketball.

While the Red Storm have minimal returning players, they have big man and 2024-25 All-Big East honoree Zuby Ejiofor back for his senior season. Next season, St. John’s will square off against SEC powerhouses Alabama and Kentucky, among other notable out-of-conference matchups.

Rick Pitino on the 2025 NBA Draft, Caitlin Clark’s Impact, Cooper Flagg

Rick Pitino on the 2025 NBA Draft, Caitlin Clark’s Impact, Cooper Flagg

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Remember When: Anonymous Lantern Source Claims College Football is “Corrupt,” “Professionalized” and “Big Business” in 1925

A crystal ball 100 years in the making, that’s what an anonymous source in The Lantern seemed to have in 1925. While college football is now more professional than it’s ever been with players now making money from revenue sharing and their name, image and likeness, the topic of whether the sport has become too professionalized […]

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A crystal ball 100 years in the making, that’s what an anonymous source in The Lantern seemed to have in 1925.

While college football is now more professional than it’s ever been with players now making money from revenue sharing and their name, image and likeness, the topic of whether the sport has become too professionalized is one that’s been a century in the making.

Nowadays, some collegiate players make more than their respective position coaches while continuing to be student-athletes. In an era where college athletics continually evolve and adapt on what seems like a daily (or at least weekly) basis, NIL has transformed the sport forever and will continue to do so with the changes that follow.

One hundred years ago, an anonymous source told The Lantern that college football was a “corrupt” sport and that “universities have become professionalized.”

Here’s a snippet from the August 26, 1925, issue of The Lantern:

The Lantern in 1925

“Football Finance.”

“Big business.”

“Football is no longer an amateur, college game. Universities have become professionalized.”

Are those statements made in 1925 or 2025? Seriously.

Even though the author in The Lantern didn’t think college football was corrupt, they did discuss college football players getting paid to play for their universities.

We do not believe our athletes are “kept” by the University although we may at times suspect they recive help from interested alumni and friends of the University. But if a man keeps eligible, and if an alumnus helps him to get a job to keep himself in school, we cannot complain that he is being professionalized.

Unviersity scouts can more than likely tell many tales of personal pressure to bear to get an athlete to attend Ohio State instead of some other school.

For those curious, after three consecutive losing seasons, the Buckeyes finished 4-3-1 in 1925 before an impressive 7-1 season a year later.

While some might argue that college football is now corrupt and all about NIL – which, in some cases, might be correct – it’s a sport that continues to revolutionize and is now more popular than ever before.

In 2010, Ohio State players were suspended and Jim Tressel was fired when said players sold memorabilia in exchange for tattoos, a saga often referred to as Tattoogate. Now, players are signing seven-figure deals to attend a school and play college football.

Fast forward to 2025, and collective bargaining might soon become a thing in college athletics.

That anonymous person in 1925 was kind of right; it just took 100 years for that to come to fruition.





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Nick Saban stresses importance of keeping non-revenue sports after President Donald Trump’s executive order

On Thursday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order with the intent of ending third-party, pay-for-play payments in college athletics. In the middle of all that, though, Nick Saban wants to ensure the protection of other collegiate sports outside of football and men’s basketball. In an appearance on FOX News on Friday, Saban stressed the […]

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On Thursday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order with the intent of ending third-party, pay-for-play payments in college athletics. In the middle of all that, though, Nick Saban wants to ensure the protection of other collegiate sports outside of football and men’s basketball.

In an appearance on FOX News on Friday, Saban stressed the need to take care of the non-revenue sports. That’s because of what the profits made in football and men’s basketball have meant to the other sports outside of those two for many years now.

“Well, I think that, you know, I’m for keeping all the sports that we have, as many that we can have. But, you know, there are financial concerns relative to how many sports can you promote that don’t create revenue?” Saban said. “I think one of the things that people need to understand about college sports – they say it’s a business, but it’s really not a business. It’s revenue-producing and two sports have created the revenue to have 20 other sports, and I think that’s why it’s important that we have a system in place.

“And I think, you know, President Trump has made the first step toward that. I think, you know, the SCORE Act in Congress right now would be another step in that direction, would protect the opportunities that we’ve been able to provide for male and female, non-revenue sports because I think it’s everybody’s goal to keep all those opportunities intact.”

Again, of everything to factor into what name, image, and likeness and revenue sharing looks live moving forward, this aspect is of note. That’s with football and men’s basketball making all of the profits as compared to every other sport around college athletics.

Saban reacts to Trump’s executive order relating to college sports

When President Donald Trump initially expressed concern about the current state of collegiate athletics back in May, he turned to Nick Saban for advice, as, after meeting in Tuscaloosa, Trump tabbed the legendary former coach as a co-chair on a yet-to-be-realized presidential commission on college sports. And, while Trump’s proposed presidential commission never went beyond those initial discussion phases, Saban’s input helped create the framework of what would become Trump’s recent executive order, titled “President Donald J. Trump Saves College Sports,” which the White House announced Thursday.

A day later, Saban praised the president’s executive order. He called it “a huge step” toward moving college athletics back to an “educational model” after the House v. NCAA settlement effectively ended the NCAA’s “amateur” model and ushered in revenue-sharing with student-athletes beginning July 1st.

“I think President Trump’s executive order is a huge step in providing the educational model which is what we’ve always sort of tried to promote to create opportunities for players, male and female alike, revenue and non-revenue, so they can have development as people, students and develop careers or develop professionally if that’s what they choose to do,” Saban said during a Friday morning appearance on FOX’s Fox and Friends. “I think we need to make a decision here relative to do we want to have an education-based model, which I think the President made a huge step toward that, or do we want to have universities sponsor professional teams. And I think most people would choose the former.”

The “Save College Sports” executive order delivers on multiple agenda items the NCAA and Power Four administrators have lobbied Congress for in recent months. That includes directing key members of his administration — specifically his secretaries of Education, Health and Human Services and the chairman of the Federal Trade Commission — to develop a plan to provide antitrust protections for the NCAA and its conferences so it can properly create and enforce rules governing the future of collegiate athletics.

An executive order streamlines some of the top items on the NCAA’s wishlist. The order “requires the preservation and, where possible, expansion of opportunities for scholarships and collegiate athletic competition in women’s and non-revenue sports.”



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Report: ESPN sees ‘potential’ for Bill Belichick TV ratings to mirror Deion Sanders impact

In 2023, Deion Sanders brought Prime Time to Colorado. The Buffaloes were a ratings hit, making a near-weekly appearance in the Top 10 most-watched college football games. More Hall of Fame star power is coming to college football in 2025, this time in Chapel Hill. Bill Belichick is gearing up for his first season at […]

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In 2023, Deion Sanders brought Prime Time to Colorado. The Buffaloes were a ratings hit, making a near-weekly appearance in the Top 10 most-watched college football games.

More Hall of Fame star power is coming to college football in 2025, this time in Chapel Hill. Bill Belichick is gearing up for his first season at North Carolina, bringing plenty of attention to the program along with him. That was apparent at ACC Media Days this week as crowds of reporters listened to what the six-time Super Bowl champion coach had to say.

ESPN is also in position to capitalize with eight – maybe 10 – UNC games on its networks, Front Office Sports reported. As for whether the company is expecting a Coach Prime-like surge, it certainly sees “potential.”

“We have to wait and see. The potential is there,” said Kurt Dargis, ESPN senior director of programming and acquisitions, in an interview with FOS. “There’s definitely interest in him outside the typical college football fan.

“Deion was such a phenomenon. I still can’t believe some of the numbers we got that first year he was there. It’s too early to say.”

ESPN capitalizing early on Bill Belichick at UNC

ESPN’s main channel is set to air North Carolina’s opener against TCU, which will take place in primetime on Monday, Sept. 1 with an 8 p.m. ET kickoff. The network will also broadcast College Football Countdown from Chapel Hill, hosted by Matt Barrie. Analysts Tedy BruschiDesmond HowardPat McAfee and Nick Saban will also be in attendance, as will college football insider Pete Thamel.

North Carolina’s Week 2 matchup against Charlotte will be exclusively on ESPN+, and Week 3 against Richmond will be on ACC Network – owned by ESPN. Two other Tar Heels games have already been picked up by ESPN. North Carolina’s Oct. 17 game at Cal will be on ESPN with a 10:30 p.m. ET kickoff, and ESPN will air the Oct. 31 matchup at Syracuse.

Of course, TCU was also the season opener for Sanders’ first season at Colorado in 2022. The Buffaloes wound up winning that game 45-42, thrusting the program into the national spotlight as Coach Prime and Co. took down a team fresh off a national championship berth.

Horned Frogs coach Sonny Dykes previously joked this year’s opener was “bad scheduling” given that recent history. However, at Big 12 Media Days, he told ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg he thinks the program is better prepared to deal with such an anticipated matchup.



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Why Hanna Cavinder Is More Than Just an Athlete

Hanna Cavinder turned her college basketball fame into a strong brand and business. With her twin sister Haley, she built a huge social media following and scored major NIL deals. Their TikTok has over 4.5 million followers and 150 million likes. Analysts say their influence rivals top male college stars. The Cavinder twins are now […]

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Hanna Cavinder turned her college basketball fame into a strong brand and business. With her twin sister Haley, she built a huge social media following and scored major NIL deals. Their TikTok has over 4.5 million followers and 150 million likes. Analysts say their influence rivals top male college stars. The Cavinder twins are now big names among student-athletes and young business minds.

Hanna Cavinder’s huge online following led to brand deals (Nike, Under Armour), startup investments, and media gigs. Her smart branding shows how college athletes can use their platform for long-term success.

Social Media

Before NIL rules, Hanna and Haley Cavinder became TikTok stars. By March 2021, they had 2.7 million followers, posting dances and basketball clips from Fresno State. Their reach showed that follower count, not stats, could drive earnings. Opendorse CEO Blake Lawrence said their impact was nearly as big as Trevor Lawrence’s the NFL’s top draft pick that year.

Today, the Cavinders have a massive online following. Their shared TikTok (@cavindertwins) has over 4.5 million followers and 150 million likes. Their Instagram accounts shared and individual total nearly 2 million followers, per SBJ. These numbers rival celebrity influencers, not typical college athletes. Hanna’s team treats these channels as key brand assets. The twins post lifestyle, fitness, and travel content to grow their audience. This steady activity taught Hanna the value of her brand even before NIL rules began.

By July 2021, when NIL rules took effect, Hanna had already shown her market power. Experts said her TikTok presence alone could earn hundreds of thousands a year. Within two years, the Cavinders reported nearly $2 million from NIL and sponsorship deals. They prove daily that social media can turn into real income for athletes.

Branding and Business Ventures

Hanna’s brand play isn’t just about TikTok. She and Haley treat NIL deals like real business. They’ve signed long-term partnerships and taken equity in companies. In July 2024, they landed a three-year exclusive apparel and footwear deal with Under Armour the first for NCAA women’s basketball players. UA even taps them to test and help design new products, using their real fan connection.

The Cavinder twins promote their ventures in a real, relatable way. Their agent says they offer brands a mix of sport, fashion, and wellness influence. Hanna often repeats her dad’s advice: ‘It’s not a four-year plan, it’s a 40-year plan.’ She says NIL taught them to invest, diversify, and think long-term. They work with a trusted attorney and aim to build a lasting business far beyond the norm for college athletes.

Under Armour even ran a playful campaign with the twins, sharing ‘7 easy steps’ to build an NIL empire. The list included ‘be elite,’ ‘sign with Under Armour,’ and ‘star in a Dick’s campaign.’ It was tongue-in-cheek, but Hanna has done it all and more.

NIL Pioneer and Role Model

Hanna Cavinder has become a key voice for college athlete opportunity. She and Haley were among the first to sign an NIL deal partnering with Boost Mobile on July 1, 2021, in a Times Square ad. The deal, reportedly worth five figures each, made headlines and opened doors.

They’ve also pushed for policy change. Both spoke at a U.S. Senate NIL roundtable, backing fair, earned rights for student-athletes.

Their success changed how people view NIL. They started at Fresno State not a sports powerhouse yet out-earned many big-school stars. As one writer said, ‘The twins are proof that NIL benefits go beyond the biggest names in the biggest sports.

In 2024, they were profiled by Sports Business Journal and included in Forbes’ 30 Under 30 for Sports a nod to their pioneering role in the NIL era and their business success off the court.

Building a Lasting Legacy

For student-athletes interested in entrepreneurship and branding, Hanna Cavinder’s journey offers several key takeaways:

1. Invest Early, Think Long-Term

Approach NIL as a long-term opportunity. Hanna treats every deal like an investment, focusing on equity, royalties, and sustainability.

2. Diversify Your Platform

Grow your brand across multiple platforms (TikTok, Instagram, etc.) and use them to authentically support your ventures.

3. Be a Trailblazer

Don’t be afraid to try new things: sign major partnerships, appear in national campaigns, launch your own product lines.

4. Stay Authentic

Hanna’s relatable, humorous, and athletic brand connects with fans. Authenticity builds trust and trust builds influence.

5. Balance Sports and Business

Build a team to help you manage both athletics and business. Hanna has done this well, continuing her NCAA basketball career while growing a business empire.

Conclusion

Hanna Cavinder has become one of the most influential college athletes of the NIL era. Through strategic branding, smart investments, and relentless social media engagement, she has proven that athletic talent is only the beginning. Her story is not just about viral fame or flashy deals it’s about building a business, inspiring future athletes, and showing the world that college athletes can be CEOs in sneakers.



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Dave Aranda draws parallel to ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ when discussing transfer portal

The question was about the negative side-effects of the transfer portal and NIL. The answer was… not about that. At least not at first. Three seconds in, when Baylor head coach Dave Aranda uttered the phrase “they’re throwing midgets,” you realize you’re in for a wild ride. Aranda has a cerebral personality, a deadpan delivery, […]

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The question was about the negative side-effects of the transfer portal and NIL. The answer was… not about that. At least not at first.

Three seconds in, when Baylor head coach Dave Aranda uttered the phrase “they’re throwing midgets,” you realize you’re in for a wild ride. Aranda has a cerebral personality, a deadpan delivery, and a diverse set of interests. That means anything is viable to come out of his mouth at any time, and when it does he’ll deliver it with a straight face. Recall last year when he likened calling plays to being a fighter pilot trying to avoid being shot out of the sky.

Aranda was making a point on how too often in college football coaches will make players feel like a part of the proverbial family only to treat them like commodities it’s go time. To make that point, Aranda recalled the scene in The Wolf of Wall Street when Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill and company are discussing hiring a little person to throw at a spinning wheel of money. But before they can do that, Hill points out, they must first make the performer feel like one of them.

Here’s how it sounded coming out of Aranda’s mouth.

Is that the best analogy to make that point? Probably not. But also yes, because you’re now going to be thinking about it all day. 



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UW football plans to use NIL to enhance community engagement

Washington Huskies coach Jedd Fisch made it clear at Big Ten media days in Las Vegas this week that his program has everything he needs to make the Huskies a contender on an annual basis. Fisch noted UW athletic director Pat Chun and Deputy Athletic Director & Chief Operating Officer Erin O’Connell as two vital […]

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Washington Huskies coach Jedd Fisch made it clear at Big Ten media days in Las Vegas this week that his program has everything he needs to make the Huskies a contender on an annual basis.

Fisch noted UW athletic director Pat Chun and Deputy Athletic Director & Chief Operating Officer Erin O’Connell as two vital people with the university who have helped usher the football program from the old Pac-12 Conference to the Big Ten, viewed as a driving force in the new world of college athletics.

This past offseason, Fisch utilized the resources provided by the duo to increase the size of his football staff, including hiring a dedicated special teams coordinator in Chris Petrilli and hiring several other coaches for new positions.

“We are competing at the highest level,” Fisch said. “Whether that be through staff size, staff compensation, staff retention, player development, player rosters, and player compensation.”

Fisch also affirmed the previous stance UW has taken with respect to Name, Image, and Likeness, with community engagement at the forefront.

Under its partnership with Montlake Futures, the football team has heavily partnered with local non-profit organizations, including Girl Scouts of America, American Heart Association, and others, with the aim of having a more authentic, organic relationship for the players as they enter a new compensation world that previously hadn’t existed.



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