You're In Charge Of Cleaning Up College Basketball. Tell Us How?

[indeedproceed]

People are fed up with the status quo. They know that the majority of top programs in college sports are paying students under the table, and they are sick of never knowing whether a NCAA title will be vacated or not even after its won.

So they tasked you with cleaning it up. Do it however you like, just make it so that competition will be as fair as you can make it, and make it so all D-1 schools have objectively the same shot. Also make it as realistic as possible.

[Moranis]

I'd just get rid of the age limit and let anyone that wants to join the NBA right out of high school.  I think that would be a tremendous help right off the bat.

[indeedproceed]

I'd just get rid of the age limit and let anyone that wants to join the NBA right out of high school.  I think that would be a tremendous help right off the bat.

I think, beyond it being pretty arbitrary and obviously not in line with any other requirements I know of other than the US presidency and bartending, it would be a great start.

[mqtcelticsfan]

I do nothing. Did you see how talented that Kentucky team was last night? If anything, I'd just give teams like UNC and Duke more money to play with so I could see super teams play each other.

[Rondo2287]

Number 1. I would make a rule across all college sports, players caught accepting illegal benefits will be punished, and if they have gone pro since accepting the benefits the punishments will affect their pro career.  Goodell has crossed this boundary already with Pryor this year. 

Number 2. Move it to a 3 year requirement like football.  This also gives more time to catch illegal benefits.  Athletes that don't want to go to college can play overseas OR in the D-league for 3 years. 

Number 3.  Players are draftable before they graduate.  This is the way that college hockey works and it seems to work well.  It also provides some security to players who are afraid they will get hurt in college. 

Number 4.  Prevent colleges from blocking transfer requests of players.

[KY Celts fan]

Number 1. I would make a rule across all college sports, players caught accepting illegal benefits will be punished, and if they have gone pro since accepting the benefits the punishments will affect their pro career.  Goodell has crossed this boundary already with Pryor this year.

This right here is a great idea. Right now there is no punishment for the player who demands/accepts the money. Marcus Camby took money from agents. What happened? The school had to vacate their wins and all money they made during the season, and Camby entered the pros and became an instant millionaire. Absolutely no punishment for the man's who fault it was. Now Camby reimbursed the school the money they had to surrender, but no one made him do that. Rose cheats on his SATs, Memphis loses their wins, and he doesn't bat an eye.

There has to be a joint agreement between the NCAA and professional organizations that when it's been proved that the player acted wrongly, as with Camby in 1996, that player should be fined and suspended for X amount of games.

[Rondo2287]

Also, I hope the Big East does follow through on its threat to ban Uconn from the Big East Tourny next year for failure to meet academic standards.  No post season play should include the conference tourny.

[indeedproceed]

Number 1. I would make a rule across all college sports, players caught accepting illegal benefits will be punished, and if they have gone pro since accepting the benefits the punishments will affect their pro career.  Goodell has crossed this boundary already with Pryor this year.  

I think Goodell really overstepped his bounds here, and I hope Stern doesn't follow suit.

Number 2. Move it to a 3 year requirement like football.  This also gives more time to catch illegal benefits.  Athletes that don't want to go to college can play overseas OR in the D-league for 3 years.  

I just don't see the value in this..to me it really violates the rights of the athlete in question. But, if it had to be done, I think raising the maximum compensation in the d-league to $100k or so would go a long ways. It would make the D-League a financially viable option, and would attract a lot of the top tier talent that would've taken the money in college anyways.

Number 3.  Players are draftable before they graduate.  This is the way that college hockey works and it seems to work well.  It also provides some security to players who are afraid they will get hurt in college.  

It actually doesn't provide any security for players (in hockey). If they get hurt in college, and the team that drafted them doesn't want them, they're screwed. I guess it might work if like in the NBA, first round picks are guaranteed a contract, but other wise I see this only benefiting teams with foresight.

Number 4.  Prevent colleges from blocking transfer requests of players.

Agree 100%.

[clover]

I'd make it a regular under-22 professional league for teams/schools that want to join it.  Full salaries with the schools having the option to decide whether they must be full or part-time students as well.  Implement some sort of individual or team salary caps and away you go!

[indeedproceed]

I'd make it a regular under-22 professional league for teams/schools that want to join it.  Full salaries with the schools having the option to decide whether they must be full or part-time students as well.  Implement some sort of individual or team salary caps and away you go!

That's the idea I've been playing around with as well.

[fairweatherfan]

1. Drop the one year limit - if players are good enough to go pro out of HS, let them.  Make the D-League more of a true minor league - 1st round players on their rookie deals can be sent there but maintain their standard salaries, rookie deal players from the 2nd or free agency can be sent down at D-League rates.  This both gives players a chance to develop and reduces the financial incentive to go pro early for all but the very best prospects.

2. Make scholarship offers 3 if not 4 years long - meaning that if Anthony Davis wants to play one year and go pro, he can, but that scholarship slot is taken for another 2 years.  This greatly reduces the incentive for schools to appeal to one-and-done guys.

3. Pay D1 players a salary - straight from the NCAA and based on a revenue sharing model.  Should be somewhere in the high 4 or low 5 figures a year, on top of the scholarship. Everyone with a scholarship gets the same amount, and different schools can't offer higher pay.  The reason I have zero sympathy for the NCAA in this whole mess is that they make billions from the talents of legal adults whose only direct "pay" is free tuition that is often of no value to them.


The net result is nobody with enough talent to play in the NBA has to go to college if they don't want to, there's less of a jump in compensation (and a big drop in exposure) for lesser talents to leave school, and universities have a strong incentive to recruit athletes who are actually interested in being students, and keep the athletes they have academically involved.  The quality of play in the NCAA drops a bit, but it's much less of a charade, and talented players have the power to choose their own path.

[Rondo2287]

Number 1. I would make a rule across all college sports, players caught accepting illegal benefits will be punished, and if they have gone pro since accepting the benefits the punishments will affect their pro career.  Goodell has crossed this boundary already with Pryor this year.  

I think Goodell really overstepped his bounds here, and I hope Stern doesn't follow suit.

I think he did to, but if you want to clean up college sports this is how you do it.  Punish the kids taking benefits and make it real for them.

Number 2. Move it to a 3 year requirement like football.  This also gives more time to catch illegal benefits.  Athletes that don't want to go to college can play overseas OR in the D-league for 3 years.  

I just don't see the value in this..to me it really violates the rights of the athlete in question. But, if it had to be done, I think raising the maximum compensation in the d-league to $100k or so would go a long ways. It would make the D-League a financially viable option, and would attract a lot of the top tier talent that would've taken the money in college anyways.

I don't think it violates their rights, there are plenty of occupations that have age or other restrictions/qualifications.  The NBA can do whatever they want and I don't think they have any risk of players longterm boycotting the league or anything like that.

Number 3.  Players are draftable before they graduate.  This is the way that college hockey works and it seems to work well.  It also provides some security to players who are afraid they will get hurt in college.  

It actually doesn't provide any security for players (in hockey). If they get hurt in college, and the team that drafted them doesn't want them, they're screwed. I guess it might work if like in the NBA, first round picks are guaranteed a contract, but other wise I see this only benefiting teams with foresight.

ya, i dunno about this one I was just trying to come up with a way to still get kids paid

[Jeff]

expand the D-League

LOL

[Chris]

I'd just get rid of the age limit and let anyone that wants to join the NBA right out of high school.  I think that would be a tremendous help right off the bat.

That's fine.  But its not the NCAA's call, and that hurts the NBA, who are benefitting from getting the extra year to evaluate these kids, and have them develop on someone else's dime.

I honestly am not sure there is anything to clean up in the NCAA.  Yeah, its corrupt, but I think the corruption is balanced enough that you just go with it.  

I think the MUCH bigger problem is not with college basketball, it is with AAU, and the scumbags who start trying to manipulate these kids before they even reach puberty, with the hopes of getting a payday down the line.  College basketball is structured enough that any real problems are minor, but these kids are being preyed upon much earlier, and that is where the issues come from.

[bdm860]

Keep college athletics, just get rid of the NCAA, so basically no rules.  

You can either have a sportswriter/coaches poll to determine champions (lame), or just have some big random tournament at the end of the year that any college team can enter.  (You know some corporation or shoe company would be all over that).

It's like the U-22 league already mentioned, colleges just sponsor a team if they want. AAU goes to college.  I like it!