J.

March 14th, 2018 at 9:37 AM ^

"Drastic" sounds like a massive overstatement.  Unsurprisingly, this appears to be the NCAA continuing to miss the point, presumably intentionally.  Allowing players who declare for the draft but don't sign with an agent to retain their eligibility seems like a good start, but other than that they seem to be focusing on pointing fingers elsewhere.  "I know!  If we stop coaches from attending AAU tournaments*, that'll clean up the sport!"

* Not stated verbatim, but the article said something about "[f]urther regulation of the recruiting process, which includes shifting the focus away from tournaments run by sneaker companies and toward those involving the NCAA and 'other organizations.'"  Although I suppose the AAU could be an "other organization" -- who knows?

Mr Miggle

March 14th, 2018 at 10:13 AM ^

Does the word even appear in the article?

I think the main point of the NCAA running summer tournaments would be to lessen the influence of the shoe companies. Corruption in recruiting involving them has been a long standing problem that's not going away on its own. It's not an easy problem to tackle. Taking over the summer tournaments could be an important step. It also puts the NCAA in a better position to deal with some of the shady characters involved with teams.

If the NCAA were to accomplish this, it would be a big deal.

These were proposals from the Pac-12 to the NCAA, just to be clear. I am curious how much support there will be for making the schools' contracts with the shoe companies public, especially the payments to coaches. I see it as at least a significant symbolic step. If the schools want to illicit money in recruiting, they should be willing to be transparent about their own finances. 

 

 

Mr Miggle

March 14th, 2018 at 11:37 AM ^

I'd say yes. Since we're talking about what they might do, I guess that's relevant. 

I hate defending the NCAA, but they are just acting as the representative of their members. Emmert and the other NCAA employees don't decide on major changes. They are voted on by the member schools.

Some of these changes are meant to address their behavior as well as the shoe companies and assorted shady characters.

 

Zarniwoop

March 14th, 2018 at 10:15 AM ^

Agreed.

Nothing more than marginal change.

Cheaters will still cheat and mostly get away with it.

Those caught will be punished mildly and randomly, unless stretching is involved.

ijohnb

March 14th, 2018 at 9:55 AM ^

can't say that I have detected a notable "drop in quality of play" as referenced in the article.  From like 1992?  Yes.  But from 10-15 years ago?  No, I think the play is better since the one and done rule took effect.  I think it is still a massive problem that needs to be eliminated or drastically modified, but I do think the quality of play has improved, not declined, in the last decade.  There are a good number of stretch 4s playing in college now (DJ Wilson, Luke May, Mo Wagner, Jaron Jackson) that is improving college play, IMO, and making it look a little more like NBA play than it did some years ago.  I think there is very strong guard play as well.  On balance, I think I enjoy college basketball aestetically more than I did a while back.

I don't see that much of an issue with the declare out of high school or go to college 3 years model either.  The NBA has a D-league.  If players want to go to college, then fine, they can stick around.  If not, they can declare and get paid comparably to any "pay for play" model that some want for college athletes.  Those who want to get paid and believe they are ready to can give it a go.  Those who want to go to college and are making that decision fully informed can pick a school and not look back.

rc15

March 14th, 2018 at 9:59 AM ^

Curious what happens if they drop the One-and-Done rule. How many kids would go straight from HS to the NBA? What would be the effect on the draft that year? You'd essentially be doubling up the number of lottery pick talents, and that could force someone like Wagner lower in the draft than he expected to be.

WorldwideTJRob

March 14th, 2018 at 1:39 PM ^

Same as it always was before the rule. There will probably be 4-5 kids who skip college and go straight to the draft. I do not think it will be some crazy number like 15 kids declaring next year. If we use this year for example. Maybe Bamba, Porter Jr., Ayton, and Bagley would’ve went straight to the NBA.

LabattsBleu

March 14th, 2018 at 10:02 AM ^

meaningless until the NCAA decides to provide bigger stipends to the athletes imo... these need to be sufficiently large enough to eliminate the tempation of "100 dollar handshakes".

the larger the sums of dirty money, the easier they are to track.

ultimately the NBA CBA holds a lot of the weight, changing the rule that caused "one and done" back to what it was just ten years ago... and potentially increasing the wages offered in the GLeague, for those that don't want to go to college or have family financial issues.

not ideal, but if programs continue to cheat, its hard for a school like Michigan to compete with that...Beilein is the best developer in C BBall, but he won't be around forever.

TK

March 14th, 2018 at 10:26 AM ^

I’m losing faith (what little I had) that the NCAA will ever change. These “bombshell” allegations against all these top coaches will likely go nowhere. Even Miller at Arizona will probably be fine. Izzo, Dantonio, whoever else has “dirt on them”...life goes on for these guys, all the noise fades away.

MGoBlue24

March 14th, 2018 at 10:31 AM ^

none of these addressals, to include the investigation of cheating coaches and programs, were going to go public until after the tournament. 

This is all about money, period.

 

M_Born M_Believer

March 14th, 2018 at 10:44 AM ^

While I will openly admit there is 0.0 percent chance of this ever coming together, this is what I would propose.

 

It would involve the NBA / NFL / and the NCAA to work jointly in their business relationships.

The NFL / NBA expand their roster limits to 6 (NBA) and 15 (NFL) exempt players.  These players would have some form of a two way contract between the league team and which ever college the player chooses.

Each league would hold an annual supplemental draft of undeclared players (including HS Seniors) if they so choose.  They would only be 2-3 rounds and of course the team could pass on their pick if they so wanted to (FYI - I am aware that the NFL does have a supplemental draft sometimes, that is the genesis of this point).

Each team would then be able to negotiate a 2 way contract for a maximum of 5 years with the player they drafted and the player would not be ineligible to play at whichever college he is at (the negotiated selection between the player and team).

This would take the top talent and put the money on top of the player.  It would maintain a level of freedom (Capitalism at its finest).  And would open an avenue for a progressive thinking professional franchise to stock up on talent within their Exempt Pool of players.

Of course there are a multitude of details that would have to be addressed, but this is a framework that I believe could work and eliminate a large portion of the seedy / under the table money laundrying.

Kermits Blue Key

March 14th, 2018 at 10:57 AM ^

NCAA MBB and football are almost on par with fake wrestling at this point. Outcomes determined beforehand by financial decisions, cheating, and shady/incompetent refereeing. It is getting increasingly difficult to take these high-dollar revenue sports seriously anymore. I mean, I still love them, I just think they're a fucking joke.

Steve in PA

March 14th, 2018 at 11:11 AM ^

It can be done without the pro cba but it won't be as elegant. Every scholarship counts for 2 years. If a player leaves after one, that scholarship can't be filled the next year.

One work around could be that a current walk on could fill it for the 2nd year.

ThatTCGuy

March 14th, 2018 at 11:22 AM ^

The only change that I see coming to the one-and-done is just to let players declare out of high school which I'm totally fine with. In my opinion, if you're one of the 3-5 guys capable of making it in the NBA out of High School than you should go get your money.

Hail Harbo

March 14th, 2018 at 11:30 AM ^

I never understood the NCAA's hypocricy when it came to the NFL and NBA draft as the NCAA allows student athletes drafted by an MLB team to retain NCAA eligibility.

J.

March 14th, 2018 at 11:46 AM ^

Well, the MLB and NHL drafts are open to everyone, but you have to declare your intent to be drafted for the NFL and NBA.

Contrary to popular opinion, though, the impetus for this difference -- at least in the NBA -- didn't come from the NCAA at all.  It dates to Larry Bird, in case you needed a/another reason to dislike the guy.  He was drafted by the Celtics in 1978, and then he returned for another season at Indiana State in 1979 in what amounted to a contract dispute.  He threatened to enter the 1979 draft -- at the time, the NBA rules were much like current baseball rules, and the Celtics would have lost his rights the moment the '79 draft started.

He eventually got the Celtics to accede to his demands just before the draft.  If they hadn't, the Lakers would have had the choice of Magic or Bird, and then the Bulls would have likely selected the other.

The NBA got its revenge, of course, by passing a rule that said that you couldn't draft somebody with eligibility remaining.  And, here we stand.  In the end, it's all about money, and it's Larry Bird's fault.  Surprising, no? ;)

JamieH

March 14th, 2018 at 12:34 PM ^

All North Carolina players will be required to pass a short multiple choice test before every game to remain eligible.   Questions wil be from deep academic topics such as "The History of North Carolina Basketball". 

4roses

March 14th, 2018 at 2:07 PM ^

Whoever put together that list is as clueless and incompetent as the NCAA. The first 2 items have NOTHING to do with the NCAA so they cannot be addressed – it’s up to the NBA to take care of those. The logic of the next item is mind boggling: “We don’t have faith in the organization that we created and are members of, so let’s create a NEW organization! This time it will be totally different because of  . . . reasons.” The 4th item is literally “let’s make more rules” Item 5 will “reduce the incentive for improper payments . . .” through further transparency on payments for campus visits. I honestly don’t even know how to react to this item. Was this stuck in there as some kind of joke? Pretty much by definition there is only one way to “reduce the incentive for improper payments” and that is to “allow proper payment at market value” Transparency on campus visit payments will be about as effective as hope, prayer, and rain dances (no offense to those that have had success with those). Item 6: “once people get their hands on the 263 page Michigan Nike contract there’s sure to be change!” Items 7 & 8 are would be completely meaningless measures and after pondering this for a while just a wee bit condescending. They are basically saying “if we can just get the athletes to understand things better than they’d totally be fine going to college for 4 years, not getting a dime as we negotiate billion dollar contract after billion dollar contract, and they’d respect all our rules”

ralphgoblue

March 14th, 2018 at 2:41 PM ^

Let me see NCAA makes $6 Billion off guys that will only be there for 2-3  years, to complain about how things are going.

NCAA will never change !!!!

Steeveebr

March 14th, 2018 at 7:53 PM ^

To me this all sounds like cover up duty.  Well, the cat is out of the bag so let's quickly change the rules so that when everything the FBI has discovered becomes official we can say no big deal, it's legal now.  Carry on.