In the 2022-23 and 2023-24 basketball seasons, Arizona reserve forward Filip Borovicanin averaged just 5.6 minutes per game at Arizona. He soon transferred to New Mexico and then Xavier, where he has become a double-figure scorer. His college eligibility was thought to have ended in March, but now Borovicanin is suing the NCAA for another season.
At a court hearing in Ohio last week in which Borovicanin and 14 other basketball players filed an injunction to see further eligibility, Xavier coach Richard Pitino said, under oath, that Borovicanin was paid $330,000 last week when Xavier paid its players a total of $5.5 million. Pitino said that this year Xavier's compensation for basketball players has soared to $14 million.
That's one of the first on-the-record statements about how crazy payments for college athletes have become.
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Xavier Musketeers forward Filip Borovicanin, left, ties up Seton Hall Pirates guard Tajuan Simpkins (2) for the ball during the second half at Prudential Center on Jan. 28, 2026, in Newark, New Jersey.
Borovicanin, who will turn 24 in January, averaged just 10.8 points for a so-so Xavier team last year. If he's making that much, and seeking more, anything goes. When will this ever stop?
The Mount Rushmore of Arizona Wildcats men's basketball players
