This web page is dedicated to the topic of college athletes who stay as little as one year (hence the term “one and done”) or even just two or three years, then turn pro. Return to this page to see new ideas, and to vote your opinion on each. You can comment on our related blog posts, or email your thoughts to ideas@improvingsports.com.
Leave the rules as they are?
Rollin Yeatts from Bleacher Report makes a number of points in favor of removing any restrictions from potential professional athletes. He shows that the absence of top players hasn’t hurt college basketball in the past, and explores the NBA Development League as a possibility for high school graduates.
Is three years of college preferable?
Dick Vitale offers his insight, including his opinion that coaches who thrive within the one-and-done system deserve credit, not blame. He also makes an argument for an MLB-style guaranteed three years in college, and creatively suggests the NBA alter its salary structure to reward athletes who stay longer in college.
To vote on Dick Vitale’s proposal of three years, scroll down to How many years should a player have to wait before NBA eligibility?…
Should freshmen be ineligible?
NBC’s Bob Costas made that point in his interview on SportsTalk. He discussed the added value to the player (who often is serious about academics) of settling down in the classroom, first.
Loading ...Should professional leagues make players wait longer to be eligible to sign?
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban suggested three years after high school as a waiting period. That would surely help colleges. The idea is already controversial.
Loading ...Universities can do more to help the athlete academically
Read IS staffer Michael’s recommendation on how colleges can help the student-athlete beyond the development that comes from the player’s coaches.
Idea: Change Scholarship Rules Regarding “One and Done”
Suggested by: IS Team
Waiting a year for their NBA eligibility to kick in, many athletes (these are “athletes”, not “student-athletes”) play one year and leave. Coaches get to replace the scholarship, so some (see our related blog post on “One and Done“) structure their recruiting to simply coach one year all-star teams.
The purpose of sports scholarships is to help athletes pay their college bills while their sport’s practices, games and travel prevents them from being able to get regular part-time employment. This leaves time to go to classes and do homework, in pursuit of a degree. As the NCAA talks about graduation rates, this situation is the most unjustifiable phenomenon in college sports today.
Some serious student-athletes miss out on getting scholarships, since those are used up by one year wonders. Those coaches have no downside to doing this. It’s interesting that universities who pride themselves on academics look the other way as their basketball programs are run without a full set of true students.
There’s one way to provide disincentive for coaches to run their programs this way: Each scholarship player who makes himself ineligible for NCAA play (by declaring for the NBA, signing an agent, etc.) has his scholarship locked up for the full four years, as if he’d stayed and played all the way through. The university loses the right to reassign that scholarship to another recruit until those four years have passed, not just the one or two he actually played.
This won’t eliminate one and done situations, but it will make it harder for colleges to build programs by using players who have absolutely no interest in getting a degree.
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