Calipari shares his solution for the future of college basketball...

[Dogdeacon]

1. You may enter the NBA Draft at 18, if drafted you may receive a signing bonus and defer entry into the NBA for 3 years if you choose to attend college. You may participate in NBA workouts, camps, and summer leagues outside the NCAA academic year and maintain eligibility.

2. If you attend college, you may not play in the NBA until after your third year of college.

3. After your 4th year, your initial draft rights expire and you are elibigle for the Draft following your senior year.

Those are decent guidelines, but unfortunately similar to the current rule b/c that is too restrictive for the 2nd tier of top high school talent (not the LeBron's or Ben Simmons, but Tatum, Mitchell, LBall types) the lengthy college commitment will never fly or hold up. Too much money out there for a talented kid during years 2-4 of the college commitment. Those years would be even more to benefit of the NCAA infrastructure that makes an absurd amount of money. Yet it is weird that there are what 5,000+ D1 college men's basketball players and the entire system is geared around & driven by the top <1%. I guess the other 99% do get a pretty good deal with education, exposure, athlete life perks. To me though the ultimate fair thing is create a profit sharing like the NBA has where 51% of revenues have to go to players. Make it even 25% in college and find an equitable way to disburse it.

 

[SubbaBub]

If they get a signing bonus that removes the incentive to leave college too early. Everything is above board and the player gets market value on his future potential.

That way you can make the penalties for schools paying players a steep one without getting into the argument as to whether players are being exploited.

There is also nothing stopping a player from playing loaned out to Europe or the G league if they leave college before 3 years are up. The NBA just won't allow teams to sign them to a full rookie contract. The NBA players union would go for that as it protects veteran contracts.

 

[intlzncster]

Eh I think it's a simple solution. Allow kids right out of HS to go to NBA. If you choose to go to college, follow the rules they have in place. If you don't want to go to college and you can't go to NBA, go to europe.

My change to this would be that if you choose college, you have to stay for 2 years minimum. Part of this is fixing the turnover in the college game. Yes, letting the best go helps in that, but I think continuity is important and should be focused on/addressed as much as possible.

 

[Dogdeacon]

My change to this would be that if you choose college, you have to stay for 2 years minimum. Part of this is fixing the turnover in the college game. Yes, letting the best go helps in that, but I think continuity is important and should be focused on/addressed as much as possible.

We can't really fix that without addressing the crux of the problem. Namely that there is simply too much money involved & it has all sorts of negative effects such as incentive to cheat, $ under the table, massive bureaucracy. Problem for us college hoop fans is we want our great players, great teams and the massive fanfare the sport attracts. We are unwilling to give that up just like the NBA isn't willing to give up using college as their best minor league testing ground. But the NBA is working on an alternate solution and maybe that will ultimately be enough for the small number of Ben Simmons of the world that don't want to go to college.
This is an even bigger problem with no minor league answer for NCAA football/NFL. Football players get majorly physically imperiled vs a handful of hoop guys not making money quickly enough. And that's not changing so we are yelling at clouds.

 

[huskymedic]

 

[Com'rGordon]

Its really not a hard solution to find. NCAA needs to strike down on colleges that are paying players to fix the sport, then eliminate the one and done rule letting kids go to the NBA Draft straight from H.S. if they wish, but if they choose to go to college they must stay atleast two years. Easy as 1,2,3

 

[intlzncster]

Its really not a hard solution to find. NCAA needs to strike down on colleges that are paying players to fix the sport, then eliminate the one and done rule letting kids go to the NBA Draft straight from H.S. if they wish, but if they choose to go to college they must stay atleast two years. Easy as 1,2,3

All those are fine ideas, which I'm on board with. But it's not going to solve the 'pay for play' issue. Shoe companies can continue to funnel money to players in an attempt to push them towards their schools and/or gain their loyalty for future deals. The schools aren't even involved in that scenario. They wouldn't necessarily have any knowledge of it either.

 

[huskypantz]

The elite schools having 25 year old seniors with 2 years of pro experience is a funny thought

BYU says Hi.

 

[WrenchFan69]

BYU says Hi.

Besides the elite part and the pro experience part, you make a good point. It does seem to work decently well for them

 

[huskypantz]

Besides the elite part and the pro experience part, you make a good point. It does seem to work decently well for them

Moreso in football, but yes.