Virginia's Tony Bennett cites state of game for retirement
Former Virginia men's basketball coach Tony Bennett, who officially announced his retirement Friday morning, pointed to the "current environment" in college sports as one of the driving forces behind his abrupt decision to step down with the Cavaliers.
"The hardest thing to say is when I looked at myself and I realized I'm no longer the best coach to lead this program in this current environment," Bennett said at his retirement news conference. "If you're going to do it, you gotta be all-in. If you do it halfhearted, it's not fair to the university and those young men. So in looking at it, that's what made me step down."
Bennett, 55, has long bemoaned the direction of college athletics and increased emphasis on the transfer portal and name, image and likeness.
"I think it's right for student-athletes to receive revenue. Please don't mistake me," he said Friday. "The game and college athletics is not in a healthy spot. It's not. And there needs to be change, and it's not going to go back. I think I was equipped to do the job here the old way. That's who I am.
"It's going to be closer to a professional model. There's got to be collective bargaining. There has to be a restriction on the salary pool. There has to be transfer regulation restrictions. There has to be some limits on the agent involvement to these young guys. ... And I worry a lot about the mental health of the student-athletes as all this stuff comes down."
Bennett said he initially thought about stepping away at the end of the 2023-24 season, but he and his staff immediately began the rebuilding process and he signed a contract extension in June that would have kept him in Charlottesville until 2030.
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