NCAA Hoops 2011-2012

[Berkut]

According to Valmy they have the rule in baseball although high school students can be drafted directly.

Was basketball different because the Universities wanted to ensure they would get at least one year of every NBA bound player?

The history of the NBA eligibility requirements are somewhat complex.

Basically, it is the NCAA and NBA against the playes. Both the NBA and the NCAA would like to see players play in college for longer, and players don't want to be required to do so (for obvious reasons).

Right now, the rule is basically that you cannot be eligible for the draft until you are 19, and you cannot be eligible for the draft until you have been out of high school for one year. So there isn't any technical requirement to go to college for a year at all.

[Eddie Teach]

Wouldn't it actually be in the players' union's interests to require the up-and-comers to wait longer? I mean, sure they can empathize with the young guys, but they'll be taking their spots...

[Valmy]

According to Valmy they have the rule in baseball although high school students can be drafted directly.

Was basketball different because the Universities wanted to ensure they would get at least one year of every NBA bound player?

There are alot of differences between the sports: 1. Baseball has a massive minor league system to park talented (and many not-so-talented) prospects.  2.  Baseball has 30 teams and a 50 round draft so basically anybody worth a crap gets drafted.  3. Only the first round draft picks (most of the time) get any kind of money on draft day.

So the gamble is...do you go ahead and start the long and hard path through the minor leagues?  Or do you go to College and see if you can hit pay dirt three years later with a high draft pick?  Another important factor is there are few scholarships for male athletes outsides of Football and Basketball so unless you are some huge super star you are going to be paying for the privilege of playing College Baseball.

[Berkut]

Wouldn't it actually be in the players' union's interests to require the up-and-comers to wait longer? I mean, sure they can empathize with the young guys, but they'll be taking their spots...

Well, the union expresses the interests of the players, and plenty of the players emphasize with the up and comers - they were up and comers themselves, right?

But yeah, given that the total number of spots is fixed, it seems pretty obvious that it is not in anyone interests (players as a group included) to have more and more people eligible for those spots, such that the selection process simply means that more people will try for those spots, faill, and then no longer even be eligible for college basketball.

The problem is that it seems pretty hard to come up with a legal case for being able to tell particular people that they cannot play professional basketball.

[sbr]

The nfl made a pretty convincing one to Maurice clarett and mike Williams.

[grumbler]

There are alot of differences between the sports: 1. Baseball has a massive minor league system to park talented (and many not-so-talented) prospects.  2.  Baseball has 30 teams and a 50 round draft so basically anybody worth a crap gets drafted.  3. Only the first round draft picks (most of the time) get any kind of money on draft day. 

Also, the potential career length of a baseball player is longer, so both players and clubs can wait that extra two years.  In basketball, those two years represent a quarter to a fifth of the nominal NBA career.

[Admiral Yi]

I don't get the argument that one and done gives an unfair advantage to "Calipari type coaches."  Are other coaches turning down potential recruits that are NBA-ready?  Are they locking their freshmen in their dorm rooms on eligibility declaration day?

[Berkut]

I don't get the argument that one and done gives an unfair advantage to "Calipari type coaches."  Are other coaches turning down potential recruits that are NBA-ready?  Are they locking their freshmen in their dorm rooms on eligibility declaration day?

I don't think there is an argument that there is an unfair advantage, I think the argument is that the Kentucky/Calipari system, which is to basically just abandon even a pretense of there being anything academic or even collegiate about their basketball program, is an unfortunate direction for college basketball.

And if in fact that becomes the model for success, then of course others schools will either have to follow suit, or accept  that in general they will not be able to compete with those schools that are willing to change the culture in that manner.

[Admiral Yi]

Abandoning this pretense will mean what in practice?

[Eddie Teach]

Less time studying maybe.

[Admiral Yi]

Less time studying maybe.

Isn't academic eligibility imposed by the NCAA?

[Eddie Teach]

So they crack a few books first semester, blow off second semester, go to NBA. Coach looks other way at missed study sessions.

I'm not sure that's such a huge advantage. What is a big advantage is ability to recruit players who have no business being in college in the first place, let alone a best-in-state university.

[jimmy olsen]

Considering the minimum salary for an NBA player will easily pay for 4 years of college and that there's a chance of career-ending injury any time a player steps on the court, I don't see the down side to getting drafted as soon as the NBA wants you.

Greg Oden = LUCKIEST MAN ALIVE.

He's also the oldest young man alive.

[grumbler]

Isn't academic eligibility imposed by the NCAA?

Yes, but the assumption of the NCAA requirements is that the player is trying.  The year that it takes to fail the NCAA eligibility requirements and exhaust all appeals is the only year the player will be pretending to be a student.  By the time the player is definitely academically ineligible, he is ineligible by reason of not being an amateur.

The problem is the lack of a proper minor league system for the NBA.  Calipari isn't the problem; he is a symptom.

[derspiess]

Considering the minimum salary for an NBA player will easily pay for 4 years of college and that there's a chance of career-ending injury any time a player steps on the court, I don't see the down side to getting drafted as soon as the NBA wants you.

Greg Oden = LUCKIEST MAN ALIVE.

He's also the oldest young man alive.

Yeah-- he looked like he was 40 when he was in college.