Not much different from minor leagues in hockey or baseball but pay is better - wonder if they will limit the upper age of players - would think they would to say 20. Keep it to a younger age than D-league.
For at large percentage of basketball and football players college is no more than a chance to market their skills - classes are a drain on their court/field time.
The problem is that the only reason their skills are on display and being marketed is the teams connection with the school. Unless there is some affiliaiton to draw in spectators there is no market for low level professionals. They already have minor leagues in most sports and they make very little money. I would think that the people who run this program have some sort of clause that makes them agents for these players when they do sign with existing professional leagues. They are just running a developmental league with future benefits. Its an investment.
Once TV exposure became a factor, minor leagues ceased to be a money making entity. Fans started following the major leagues on the tube rather than being limited to their local cities minor leagued team. The only way this would work is if the NBA supports it finanicially and it becomes much like the local teams in minor league baseball once were.
It does make rational sense though. The colleges should have treated their spots teams like vocational classes rather than the extra curricular event they began as. Once they became a means of making a living that is how they should have been treated. College sports have morphed into a means of getting exposure and development rather than a way to get a degree. It was actually the NCAA, in their bid to control college sports while feeding on the financial money tree that created this situation. They are not allowing players the opportunity to develop their athletic vocational skills by placing too many restrictions on them. You do not see the same restrictions placed on simular vocations being offered by the Universities.
By throwing most of their rules too the wind this covid season they have opened themselves up to the rational of the guildlines the have used for eligibility in the past. I would like to see a class action suit against the NCAA in respect to the loss of income their arbitary rules have affected on the earning potential of athletes that they have negatively affected.
