Sunday, July 22, 2012

Examining the One-and-Done Rule: The University Perspective

This is the first part of a two-part article examining college basketball's one-and-done rule requiring players to either play a year of college basketball or sit out until they are 19 before entering the NBA draft.  As the resident expert on collegiate sports on this blog I will be looking at it from the perspective of college basketball.


The one-and-done rule is infuriating to the college basketball fan.  The most gifted and talented players in the sport will play one season before packing their bags, declaring for the draft, and collecting a big paycheck in the process.  The one-and-done rule undermines the principle of the college athletes being students first and athletes second.  Programs like John Calipari's Kentucky Wildcats exploit this rule to create a revolving carousel of talented players who regularly make deep NCAA Tournament runs while the bench players go to class, study hard, and graduate to keep the program from facing probation and other sanctions for not meeting the NCAA's requirements for APR (Academic Progress Rating).

While many players have played a season of college basketball before transitioning to the NBA and have had successful careers many others have gone pro early only to find themselves unprepared for the next level.  I believe that the front offices of NBA franchises would benefit from having more than one season of play (30 some games) to evaluate players who they will be making multi-million dollar investments in.

I also have concerns about young players coming out early having the maturity to handle the money that comes being a professional athlete.  A large share of the players in the NBA came from relatively modest or below poverty-line homes and suddenly they have huge piles of money handed to them with no idea how to manage it wisely.  Staying in college a year or two longer would give them the opportunity to mature.  On a side note I think that the NBA should implement a program in which players under the age of 21 have a portion of their salaries go into a trust that they cannot access until after their rookie contracts expire in order to ensure that these young athletes have a nest egg and do not go broke.  Perhaps set it up in such a way that players a rewarded for leaving that money in that trust longer by having the league match whatever interest that money accrues.

I think that when high schoolers sign letters of intent to play college basketball they should be required to stay at least two years.   After the end of their sophomore year they can then declare for the draft if they so choose but they should be required to repay the university they played for the cost of the tuition, room, board, and books by the end of their first NBA season.  Players who leave after their junior year would be free to forego their senior seasons and go to the NBA early and would not be obligated to reimburse their university.

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