The St. John’s men’s basketball team has become one of the most historic in all of college basketball. Led by legendary head coach Rick Pitino, St. John’s is always in the conversation to go deep and even win the March Madness tournament. Now, Rick Pitino has some other plans for St. John’s.
St. John’s is playing three major SEC programs next season: the Kentucky Wildcats, the Alabama Crimson Tide, and the Ole Miss Rebels. Pitino is now calling for St. John’s to make a football team and join the SEC. This has drawn out a reaction that surprises absolutely nobody.
NCAA World Reacts to Rick Pitino’s Wild SEC Football Claim
Rick Pitino has earned the right to call himself one of the most legendary college basketball coaches that the sport has ever seen. Despite his historic coaching career, Pitino is not protected from criticism, and the NCAA world let Pitino know exactly that on Tuesday.
Rick Pitino took to X, formerly known as Twitter, and posted the following:
“We are playing 3 Big time SEC programs: Kentucky, Alabama, and Mississippi. We are thinking of bringing back football under Head Coach, Anthony Zito. If we do, we will submit our application to join SEC football.”
This drew many NCAA fans, both of basketball and football to his outrageous post. While a perfect world would see St. John’s having a football program, they are certainly a long ways away from competing with some of the best in the college football world inside of the SEC.
One fan commented, “Rick forgot to take his crazy pills this morning,” and another said “I’m sure he’s kidding but St John’s would finish bottom in football and bottom half in basketball every year. Besides, SEC would never want them. It’s basically a ghetto JC in Queens, not a bustling college town like Athens, Knoxville, Tuscaloosa or Gainesville.”
There’s a reason that college football isn’t very popular in the state of New York. With all the professional teams that New York has, college teams would just get lost in the fray. Unlike with Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, and Kentucky, where college teams can be very successful.
Some fans came to the support of Pitino’s claim, but in a more realistic way, with one commenting, “Been talking about bringing back football for a while. If it’s done in a classy way, like #SJUBB got a shot of life, it was a wonderful. When I was at GWU after my freshman year, football ended &it was very sad. I love going to the RFK. I’m glad people are listening!”
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St. John’s remains one of the top basketball programs in the entire college basketball world. However, a football team for St. John’s would be a completely different animal. Maybe one day, but this seems like a farfetched dream, as of right now.
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