John Calipari talks about fixing the NCAA

John Calipari was on the Dan Patrick Show Wednesday morning to talk about the most popular topic regarding collegiate athletics: “How to fix the NCAA.”

It’s a topic Calipari has been very passionate about for quite some time now, as he has seen some obvious problems in the system that has brought forth many of the incidents uncovered by the FBI.

Calipari touched on a wide array of topics, from agents involvement with players while in high school to players—and their families—receiving loans to a potential high school combine and letting players manage their own likeness.

Cal’s ideas seem like manageable solutions, and avoid the notion of “blowing it up” to accommodate one-and-done players, something he said he is not a fan of.

“We’re going to encourage them to go to the (G-League) and they don’t make it, are we going to have a list of a thousand of those? Two thousand of those?,” asked Calipari. “And then I ask you this, ‘Who’s going to take care of them?’

“We just had the highest graduation rate of African-American basketball players in the history of our sport last year. How many of those kids thought they were one and done, or two and done? Probably 90 percent of them, but they stayed in school and they got it.”

Instead, Calipari said the NBA should be focused on providing an education for players after their playing career is over.

He also touched on players meeting with agents before enrolling in college, and said that college coaches shouldn’t be held liable for players’ actions that they don’t know about.

“If the coach cannot control it, make it legal,” said Calipari. “If I have no control over it, and you’re going to say that I’m responsible for it? Make it legal. Make it legal, I don’t care what it is. If you’re going to tell me something happens in their high school, make it legal. Something happens in their hometown, make it legal.”

The NCAA will almost certainly see some changes in the near future as more information from the FBI investigation is uncovered. The question is how extensive will the changes be? It’s clear that there are several problems that don’t just stem from the NCAA but more so arise from AAU and NBA entities.

It will be interesting to see what changes are made, but one thing is for certain: Calipari seems to be on the frontlines of wanting to see new ideas put into place.