Pitt AD Speaks on NCAA Changes

Pitt Panthers Athletic Director Allen Green was recently on the first episode of 'Beyond the Script', a podcast Pitt Athletics is rolling out as part of new multimedia initiatives.

Eligibility

Greene was asked about the NCAA's recent changes to college eligibility rules, which gives every student athlete a five-year window of eligibility. The new rule effectively elimates redshirting while also making sure athletes can't stay in college sports for over five years.

"I do [support it]," Greene said. "Now that there's the opportunity for kids to earn money from [NIL], we went into this knowing that there weren't any guardrails and things escalted quickly. There's an understanding of why student athletes would want to stay in college as long as they can, it's a really good life. But, it should be for students who are in that timeframe of their lives."

As usual, there are impending lawsuits against the NCAA from athletes who just missed the qualifications for this new rule. The NCAA hasn't put up it's best fights in court cases these past few years, but this rule is expected to be held for the future nonetheless.

"Can we get more centered and grounded to what college athletics is what it's supposed to be, knowing that it will never be what it was?" Greene said. "If we can get some guardrails into this industry to help these young people, that's a good spot for us to be in."

Names such as star volleyball player Olivia Babcock and football linebacker Braylan Lovelace were thrown out as players who could qualify under this new rule, but the Athletic Director didn't get into if Pitt was pursing retaining those players past the upcoming season.

Expansion

Greene was also asked about the expansions to the NCAA Tournament in basketball, which was raised to 76 teams, and talks of increasing the college football playoffs.

"There is no perfect system. Our challenge is what system ought to be in place that identifies the certain number of best teams that gives us a chance to have the best team and be the national champion," Greene said. "That's the beauty of college athletics, it's imperfect."

Unsurprisingly, Greene is more concered about making Pitt sports as good as possible to adapt to the changes, rather than weighing in on what the NCAA decides.

Overall Changes

When asked about how his job as changed, Greene stressed "at any moment in time, the rules of engagement can change that make the job entirely different. I've gotten more comfortable with recognizing I don't know what will happen the next three months."

Greene mentioned the Protect College Sports Act possibly being passed or not, a bill that is going through Congress that is designed to ease the madness of college sports.

Green was also very honest about the business of college sports, saying "we have to focus on football and men's basketball. In the current landscape, those programs have to be successful." As the two top money-earning sports for any school, football and men's basketball will always take priotiy. Pitt Athletics has been very open about some recent choices, such as moving the Backyard Brawl to PPG, being driven by NIL funding.

"But, when I take a step back from the business aspect, we have 500-and-some student athletes who we are responsible for across sports," Greene added. "When I think about how we set up our departments day-to-day, we have to serve all of those."

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