Jim Boeheim sends warning to college basketball after Tony Bennett's retirement

News of Tony Bennett’s retirement from Virginia shocked the college basketball world – in part because of the timing. But to former Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, it’s a product of the current landscape, which is why he sent a warning about the state of the game.

Boeheim said the changes across the sport with NIL and the transfer portal were the driving factor in Bennett’s decision, which came just 20 days before UVA was set to tip off the season. The portal is starting to mirror the NBA’s free agency as more than 1,960 Division I players hit the open market during this past cycle, as On3’s Pete Nakos wrote.

Boeheim, however, called for changes to the system. He wants to see less focus on making money and more on finding a solution to the issues surrounding college athletics.

“We lost one of our great coaches solely because of the landscape that is college basketball,” Boeheim told The Field of 68’s Jeff Goodman. “Our leadership has to stop focusing on how much money we can make and find a way to get the student athletes on board with an answer for NIL.”

Bennett is the latest national-championship winning coach to announce his retirement since 2021. College basketball has also seen Jim Boeheim, Jay Wright, Roy Williams and Mike Krzyzewski step away from the sidelines as the sport begins to change. In fact, according to ACC Network producer Bryan Ives, the 2024-25 season will be the first time the league won’t have a coach who has won a national title since 1981-82.

More on Tony Bennett’s decision to retire

Bennett, 55, has been the head coach at UVA since 2009 and has a 364-136 record in Charlottesville. During that time, the Cavaliers won six ACC regular-season titles and won the 2019 national championship – one year after becoming the first No. 1 seed to ever lose to a No. 16 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Bennett will address his decision to step away Friday in a press conference, UVA announced. Goodman previously reported health was not a factor in his move.

Bennett arrived at Virginia from Washington State, where he was the head coach from 2006-09 after three seasons as an assistant. He was also an assistant coach at Wisconsin from 1999-2003. All told, during his time as a head coach at Wazzu and UVA, he amassed a 433-169 record.

Over the course of his career, Bennett received multiple notable honors. He is a two-time Naismith College Coach of the Year, a four-time ACC Coach of the Year and the 2007 Pac-10 Coach of the Year. In addition, he won three Henry Iba Awards as the best college basketball coach in the nation by the United States Basketball Writers Association.