The Commission on College Basketball takes sharp aim at the one-and-done rule, AAU summer basketball and the current penalties for rules violations in a report released this morning, according to The Associated Press.
The 12-member commission, headed up by former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, was formed in the wake of a federal corruption probe that resulted in bribery and kickback charges and touched high-level programs such as Arizona, Louisville and Kansas.
Of particular interest in NBA circles is a recommendation to scrap the current rules for draft eligibility, which requires that players be at least age 19 or one year past their graduation date. The current regulations were adopted in 2006 to stop the wave of high school players who were choosing to bypass college.
“One-and-done has to go one way or another,” Rice said.
The commission considered recommending rules similar to the ones used by Major League Baseball, which permits players to be drafted out of high school but requires them to spend at least three years in college if they opt for that route. Instead, it wants a system where players can test the draft waters after any season without losing their college eligibility.
The NBA has talked to the players’ union about changing the one-and-done rule, but any move wouldn’t take effect before the 2020 draft, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. The league sees value in letting players return to college because there are too many prospects to handle, even with the G League (Twitter link).
The league and the union released a joint statement in response to the report. “Regarding the NBA’s draft eligibility rules,” it stated, “the NBA and NBPA will continue to assess them in order to promote the best interests of players and the game.”
Continuing to build up the G-League is crucial as players drafted straight out of high school should have to spend a year there (or some NBA sanctioned service time)
Allowing kids to go back to school, after they test waters or if they go undrafted, helps alleviate the overflow and save a kids future.
This type of protocol should be coming in the near future, hopefully
I’m almost completely with her. Let the NBA sign whoever they want to the G-League; that way, they get paid to develop their skills. Save the scholarships for athletes and others who truly want the college education. If you accept an athletic scholarship, make it a requirement that you have to graduate or pay back the gift – everybody wins here. Athletes who go that route couldn’t complain about compensation – ask anybody paying off student loans. If you institute this system and somebody still tries to cheat their way around it, then yes… serious strict bans. Maybe not lifetime; perhaps strip the offending college of their basketball program for five years on a first offense, which would very much entail the program starting again from scratch. Second offense? Yeah, some people don’t learn. No basketball for you ever.
There is no one-and-done rule. There IS a gotta-be-19 rule or some such. I would make it 20. NBA players should have to go to college whether they like it or not.
It’s not up to that commission to rule the NBA!