Carlesimo went on to become the athletic director at Fordham University from 1968 to 1978. As a member of the Metropolitan Intercollegiate Basketball Association (MIBA), Fordham was part of the committee that ran the National Invitation Tournament. The tournament began to lose luster in the mid-1970s following the implementation of a rule (the so-called "Al McGuire rule") forbidding schools from declining bids to the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament. This had led to a dwindling in talent and interest in the NIT, which Carlesimo sought to fix by rules changes implemented in 1977. Carlesimo proposed moving the early round games to campus sites, and having only the final four teams play at Madison Square Garden in New York City. This move is seen as the reason the NIT has survived, as more interest is garnered by the schools participating, as they now have more of a financial stake from ticket sales.
Carlesimo went on to become the first full-time executive director of the NIT from 1978 to 1988,[3] and in 1985, under Carlesimo's leadership, the NIT began a preseason tournament which included many of the country's best teams along with teams which have used the tournament as a springboard to much better seasons. He is still considered to be one of the most influential persons in the long and storied history of the NIT. He is a member of the University of Scranton's Athletic Hall of Fame, the Fordham University Athletic Hall of Fame, the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame, and the NCAA Athletic Director's Hall of Fame. He also won Scranton's Pro Deo award, a Pop Warner Father of the Year award, and was a member of the Jesuit Honor Society.
^Araton, Harvey. "BASKETBALL; Up, Up and Away: Muted Carlesimo Starts Over", The New York Times, October 20, 1994. Accessed December 3, 2007. "All of a sudden, Carlesimo was at his parents' home on a tree-lined street in Upper Montclair, N.J., the family called into conference to talk Carlesimo out of leaving or help him tie the loose ribbons around his decision to go west."