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

[StartOrien]

I can't take credit for this idea, but I also can't remember whose idea it was so...

NCAA scholarships should be 4 year scholarships. If a player would like to leave school early to enter a professional league, they should have to pay the school back for each year they leave early.  Giving financial reasons for a student to stay in college.

So if you're going to a school that costs 40k a year, and you leave after your freshman year you owe your school (or the nccaa) 120k

[MBz]

I'd allow kids to get drafted right out of HS, but if they do decide to go to college then they have to stay for a minimum three years.  The other thing I would do is cut down on scholarships, I think the max amount now is somewhere around 11-13.  That's too many, it allows teams like Kansas, UNC, Kentucky to always dominate.  Cut it down to like 8.  Then the guys who are 9-13 on those dominating teams will start going to your smaller schools.  

[feckless]

Colleges and coaches are making tons of $ off of sports. Adds to prestige in most cases, draws students more than academics.  Just make it honest --a certain number of players get paid, have different pay slots, academic slots, benefits for family--it is in most ways a job and should be treated as such. I always remember Bob Knight's opposition to league tournaments was they were put there to make more money for the schools and the leagues, yet none of his players parents could afford to get in?

[Employee8]

Realistically?  You probably can impose only one rule change.  I like some of the ideas floating around here but the biggest one that probably would make the most impact is remove the 1-year college thingy.  Now for this rule change, I'd like to add on a few things.  Okay, maybe this is more than 1 change but here goes:

• You may declare your eligibility for the NBA at any time.
  
• If you do not get drafted, you are allowed to go to college. But you are not allowed to declare your eligibility for the NBA until you complete 4 years.

Puts the meaning back into "student athlete".

[fairweatherfan]

I can't take credit for this idea, but I also can't remember whose idea it was so...

NCAA scholarships should be 4 year scholarships. If a player would like to leave school early to enter a professional league, they should have to pay the school back for each year they leave early.  Giving financial reasons for a student to stay in college.

So if you're going to a school that costs 40k a year, and you leave after your freshman year you owe your school (or the nccaa) 120k

I suggested something similar, but instead the scholarship slot is "held" for all four years, whether the player's there to use it or not.

With your approach, I don't really understand the rationale behind having a player "pay back" benefits he never received in the first place.  Seems needlessly punitive, and I can't imagine it holding up legally.

[indeedproceed]

Path 1: Keeping the Age Limit (actually, increasing it), and Actually Paying The Kids

Moral justification: It happens anyways, and everybody, from the coaches, the schools, to the AD's to the trainers are making money off these kids.

Plan: Create a separate league (d1-Elite, whatevs) for the programs that want to opt to do this, and have the programs have up to 10 salaried players (beyond scholarships) per season, with a maximum salary of 125k, and maximum player salary of 25k. Every dollar that they pay the players has to get matched by the school in designated charitable donations or something.

Since most of the big teams do this kind of thing already (likely with more money), the current D1 landscape will be kept largely intact.

Teams that opt not to pay its players can join the league as well.

Teams that opt not to join the league will have their own tournament.

Players found knowingly violating rules will be banned for life.

Coaches found to allow infractions on their squads will be suspended for a minimum of 2 years, with the same non-contract rules that agents/NBA GM's have.

Schools found to have more than 2 infractions in 3 years will be banned 1 year per infraction.

Path 2: Preserving The Integrity of 'Student Athletes'

Kill the age requirement, and drastically increase punishment for rule infractions.

[StartOrien]

I can't take credit for this idea, but I also can't remember whose idea it was so...

NCAA scholarships should be 4 year scholarships. If a player would like to leave school early to enter a professional league, they should have to pay the school back for each year they leave early.  Giving financial reasons for a student to stay in college.

So if you're going to a school that costs 40k a year, and you leave after your freshman year you owe your school (or the nccaa) 120k

I suggested something similar, but instead the scholarship slot is "held" for all four years, whether the player's there to use it or not.

With your approach, I don't really understand the rationale behind having a player "pay back" benefits he never received in the first place.  Seems needlessly punitive, and I can't imagine it holding up legally.

The university is making a commitment to you as a student-athlete for for years. If you're leaving the school you're not holding up the end of your agreement. Like a very, very, very, very expensive cell phone contract.

I think it gives a reason for a student to return, particularly if he's in between leaving and not. Also, encourages players who have no interest in playing more than a season to go across  seas.

[nickagneta]

Many Div I school makes millions off their men's basketball programs. This is simple. Convert Div I ball into 2 divisions Div I and Div 1A. Div IA keeps the current rules and consists of all conferences not wanting to abide by the following Div I rules:

1. Divert $10,000 to each of 15 players that make each Div 1 team.

2. Make the age to enter into professional basketball 21 or 2 years of Div I college basketball.

3. Players must take in their two years classes for personal money management, communications with media, and sports law.

4. Players must maintain a 2.0 GPA to be academically eligible to play and must finish 2 full years of college or be 21 in order to be eligible to be drafted.

5. Any program caught paying students more than $20,000 or having given gifts to the students or having any associated with the program doing so is penalized by loss of all athletic scholarships in men's basketball for a period of 4 years and is ineligible for all post season play(NIT, NCAA, conference tourneys) and is ineligible to receive any television money from the NCAA national contract or conference contracts and will still have to make good on all existing athletic scholarships and pay the players incoming and in the program the $20,000 stipend.   

6. Any program that finds a player has violated these rules with any person or organization rules associated with the program or not associated with the program and expels the player, disassociates itself from the person or organization involved and reports the incident to the NCAA will not be sanctioned by Rule. 5 above. The expelled player will lose their scholarship, be responsible for repaying any stipend money received while attending the university and will be ineligible to play NCAA basketball on any level for one year and will still be ineligible to be drafted until completing two years of college with the above class requirements or achieve the age of 21.

7. Any coach(head or assistant)caught knowingly violating said rules will be suspended from coaching in Div 1 or Div 1A for a period of four years. If said coach is fired and reported by the university immediately and there is sufficient proof that said university had no knowledge of the rules violation outside of the coach(es) and player(s) involved and the university complies by expelling said students and firing said coaches immediately upon discovering of the violations, the NCAA will launch an investigation and if the proof is corroborated, the university will receive a lesser punishment from the 4 year penalty described in Rule 6. The decrease in punishment will be determined by the NCAA Investigatory Unit.

8. The new NCAA Investigatory Unit will be a third party law accounting/investigatory firm that is to be hired by the NCAA and will not be the NCAA itself.

[feckless]

I can't take credit for this idea, but I also can't remember whose idea it was so...

NCAA scholarships should be 4 year scholarships. If a player would like to leave school early to enter a professional league, they should have to pay the school back for each year they leave early.  Giving financial reasons for a student to stay in college.

So if you're going to a school that costs 40k a year, and you leave after your freshman year you owe your school (or the nccaa) 120k

I suggested something similar, but instead the scholarship slot is "held" for all four years, whether the player's there to use it or not.

With your approach, I don't really understand the rationale behind having a player "pay back" benefits he never received in the first place.  Seems needlessly punitive, and I can't imagine it holding up legally.

The university is making a commitment to you as a student-athlete for for years. If you're leaving the school you're not holding up the end of your agreement. Like a very, very, very, very expensive cell phone contract.

I think it gives a reason for a student to return, particularly if he's in between leaving and not. Also, encourages players who have no interest in playing more than a season to go across  seas.

Some of these kids are not even old enough to sign a contract.  Not exactly an even playing field as far as maturity and resources.

[SHAQATTACK]

makem stay at least 3 years.

[guava_wrench]

I can't take credit for this idea, but I also can't remember whose idea it was so...

NCAA scholarships should be 4 year scholarships. If a player would like to leave school early to enter a professional league, they should have to pay the school back for each year they leave early.  Giving financial reasons for a student to stay in college.

So if you're going to a school that costs 40k a year, and you leave after your freshman year you owe your school (or the nccaa) 120k

How does the scholarship money compare to the money the school and the coach are making by exploiting that player?

Let the players get paid and get endorsement deals. I see no reason whatsoever why college players shouldn't be able to get lucrative sneaker endorsement deals. Something is really out of whack when a player who is already being exploited by the NCAA can't even use his fame for income and at least free sneakers through endorsements. What makes this exploitation even more transparent is that other parties are allowed to make money off of them through endorsements.

If you want players to have integrity, make the schools have integrity. The problem isn't the players. The problem is big money college sports. The players are at worst, just receiving a portion of what their true market value is.

And how does it make any sense whatsoever to claim that a player needs 4 years of college to be a basketball player? Plumbers don't need 4 years of college. Neither do painters. Bill Gates didn't need 4 years of college. It seems to me that the people who want players to stay in college 4 are just selfish - they are fans who want the players to suffer in order for them to be entertained.

To be fair, colleges do bring value into the equation - training and exposure. But most NBA caliber players don't need 4 years of that.

[guava_wrench]

There is only 1 entity to blame for the one and done athlete - the NBA. This is a product of them instituting an age minimum.

Forcing Amare, Lebron, or Howard to play multiple years of college ball would just be exploitation.

[Jon]

I think thr simplest easiest thing to "fix" the problems is for the NBA to develop the NBADL so that it can function as a full-fledge minor league system as in baseball and hockey.  Then anyone who doesn't have an interest in the educational component of college basketball or simply wants to get paid will have a place to do so with no deception.

Will this severely undermine the NCAA? Yep.   But I really don't care. This has been much more about colleges making money than it has been about education for a really long time.  I'd much rather see an honest system where those who want to get paid do so, and those who want to go to school do so.

[dark_lord]

pay the players a set amount. they deserve it

[dark_lord]

I can't take credit for this idea, but I also can't remember whose idea it was so...

NCAA scholarships should be 4 year scholarships. If a player would like to leave school early to enter a professional league, they should have to pay the school back for each year they leave early.  Giving financial reasons for a student to stay in college.

So if you're going to a school that costs 40k a year, and you leave after your freshman year you owe your school (or the nccaa) 120k

i dont like that idea bc the nba forces the kids to go one and done.  the only other way is what brandon jennings did, which is play overseas for a year.