Changes to the College/NBA Rules Are Coming: The Death of the OAD
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I am obviously a huge CBB fan. I can’t stand the NBA. But I am a free market guy.
If the NBA presents an alternative, then good for them. If kids can come out of high school and make a living, great. And if they bypass college, fine with me.
What I don’t like are folks trying to change the college game because they want players paid a part of the profits. That’s not the college game.
That of course could evolve with competition. But I would view that as a more natural, free market change. The NCAA reacting to the market vs. reacting to whiners.
And it all comes back to this – the players have choice. Play under the NCAA rules, or do something else. That is what I want preserved. It’s pure, it’s based on the market, and it highlights the many positives that CBB presents. The narrative that kids are “forced” into the CBB is laughable and dishonest.
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What about the NCAA doing away with amateurism rules. Allow the schools to pay whichever athletes they want “fair market value.” How is that figured? That’s up to the university. These kids are risking their physical health both short and long term to earn billions of dollars for people who wear suits. As a profitable basketball program, KU could likely offer top recruits more money than say Iowa State, or they could use some of that money to go after a quarterback or a rower or a tennis player. Scholarships would be part of the offers. For some kids like Mitch, that might be enough. For others, some additional compensation might make the difference between their hometown school and a blue blood. In reality that is still the case, so why not make it legal as to get the shady people out!
Will problems arise? Yes. Fix them then. Will some schools game the system and cheat? Yes. Punish the school not the kid. Is it fair? No. Nothing really is.
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There will always be KU basketball to watch. Even if it ends up being 5 white guys running around playing 5 other white guys, we will still hear the Rock Chalk Chant damn near every Saturday from November through April.
The real question is how does the NBA think that they can afford this? And, if they can, what would they gain by doing so? I think they should let guys go right out of HS. Absolutely. But other than that, why shell out a crap ton of money just to train players slightly differently than they are getting trained now? Just makes no sense to me.
First, Colleges already have infrastructure all over the country. World-Class infrastructure. They have a fan-base that puts players on national stages and attracts more casual fans to the NBA than a developmental league would. How is the NBA going to get players that are literally located in every state in the country into some sort of developmental process? It just seems so messy to me.
I understand that baseball does it. But it works for baseball because nobody watches College Baseball. I couldn’t name a single College Baseball player right now. So, the MLB gains nothing from the College Game. They also get to pay the majority of their players in their developmental system next to no money. Making it much more affordable. Especially because the MLB has almost no competition internationally for players. Salary-wise, it isn’t even close.
I am also concerned with what the rules would be. Do players sign with teams in HS? Is there a draft? How would all of this work, for a pre-18 year old? There would just be far, far too much to do that I can’t see how this makes sense.
As long as the best players in the World continue to play in the U.S. I see no reason the NBA would want to embark on an endeavor that seems to me, quite fruitless.
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Silver does say the NBA has no plans for an academy in the US. Mexico City will be the closest one.
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@benshawks08 You do realize that they are paying them fair market value right now, right?
Unfortunately your suggestion would destroy CBB. You’re suggesting changing NCAA rules to makes CBB professionals.
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Cant wait for the sob stories in 20 years. People think an NBA minor league will mean big money for “these poor kids being treated like slaves”. It wont and more guys will make bad decisions and make 20k a year for 3 years and have nothing and no skills after that. You will hear about a ton of guys who were “cant miss” taking student loans in their 30s. Go look at the stories of how little the minor league baseball guys are paid.
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The simplest solution is to let kids enter the draft or be drafted and come back to school if they don’t sign.
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@mayjay doesn’t necessarily solve the paying recruits problem though. I like NCAA’s solution to let players fetch endorsements.
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@Kcmatt7 Sure. They can do other things to solve a variety of problems, too.
My suggestion was just for how the NCAA can stave off some of the developmental talent raiding: make college basketball inclusive of kids who want to explore professional options rather than kicking them out for taking a chance on the draft.
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HighEliteMajor said:
It is ridiculous that an adult is limited from making a living in any profession solely because of collective bargaining, where the participants conspire selfishly to exclude that individual.
You realize when the “sign with an agent”, the agent generally puts out a line of credit for travel, training, etc. Who pays this bill when the kid goes back to school? Also if they take credit(money) what happens to their amateur status?
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benshawks08 said:
What about the NCAA doing away with amateurism rules. Allow the schools to pay whichever athletes they want “fair market value.” How is that figured? That’s up to the university. These kids are risking their physical health both short and long term to earn billions of dollars for people who wear suits. As a profitable basketball program, KU could likely offer top recruits more money than say Iowa State, or they could use some of that money to go after a quarterback or a rower or a tennis player. Scholarships would be part of the offers. For some kids like Mitch, that might be enough. For others, some additional compensation might make the difference between their hometown school and a blue blood. In reality that is still the case, so why not make it legal as to get the shady people out!
Will problems arise? Yes. Fix them then. Will some schools game the system and cheat? Yes. Punish the school not the kid. Is it fair? No. Nothing really is.
Schools with more money, wealthier alums have an edge?
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The whole concept of having academies is silly.
Let’s see, the NBA ha 30 teams and each carries app. 15 players which makes it 450 active players in the League. Now let’s assume an average career of 10 years which means about 45 players or so are replaced every year. The draft selects 60 players of which 10-15 are foreigners with some experience and out of the 60 maybe 40-50 stick and the rest don’t make it and matches the number of players that retire or are phased out. This means that the NBA would be creating a system of Academies to produce app. 30 players per year?
It makes no sense financially when the G League already exists and what it pays is very low. There is no way these academies would generate any income and could not compete with the excitement of college basketball and its huge fan base.
A much better approach is to allow players to go directly to the League front m HS and the ones that don’t need to wait 3 years improving their game enough to have a chance to either make it in the League or have a career not in sports.
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@HighEliteMajor True they are getting paid fair market value now but it’s mostly under the table through occasional illegal wire transfers to the kids mom or uncle or whatever. Why does that destroy college basketball anymore than what’s happening now? If the university pays the coach that gets kids better, players will still want to go play for that coach. Maybe even more so if that coach can offer more than a fake year or two of “education” that is mostly classes picked because they are easiest to pass. What if colleges created programs specifically designed to further an athlete’s career in sports either through playing, coaching or any other related job? What if the focus was on providing value for the athlete instead of pretending they are just like any other student but being expected to follow rules no other student has to?
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@Gunman That isn’t true now?
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@JayHawkFanToo Average career in the NBA will surprise you: only half of what you are assuming!
The goal of acdemies would be solely to undermine lengthy careers (and thus reduce the most expensive salaries) by developing players early enough to start contributing when they actually go into the “majors.” I.e., change the ratio to more 1st, 2nd, and 3rd year players, who will be much cheaper coming out of an academy system than the current draft with guaranteed 1st round contracts. Kids going in really early will lose major leverage.
This can only hurt the established players. The union will not likely agree unless the system allows for free movement out of those academies.
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I know what you are saying about career length but numbers can tell many different stories.
There are many players that join the League sign one contract for 2 over 3 years and after that they are gone, Other like Jabbar and Nowitzki can have careers that span 20+ years. Fringe players don stay very long and skew the number down quite a bit; starer quality players stay a lot longer.
Minimum of 41 games played in a career = 6.18 seasons.
- Less than 12 minutes per game for a career = 2.01 seasons.
- More than 12 minutes per game for a career but less than 20 = 5.01 seasons.
- More than 20 minutes per game for a career but less than 25 = 7.59 seasons.
- More than 25 minutes per game for a career but less than 30 = 9.21 seasons.
- More than 30 minutes per game for a career = 10.88 seasons. NBA All-Star at least once = 11.36 seasons.
Obviously the objective of these academies would be to develop quality players, or so a reasonable person would think. Why would the academies bother developing players that will stay in the League 1-3 years when you can pick those anywhere with zero investment? If you take the numbers above for starter quality players needing comparable replacement, then a ten year career is not that unrealistic.
Now, if all they want to do is produce tons of players to replace entire rosters ever 3 years then the academies would make sense…but who would want to see a teams with lots of players with under 3 years experience? Isn’t this what college basketball currently is?
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@JayHawkFanToo If they have been “developing” them for 1 to 3 years at low salaries, and simply cut the ones without potential, they don’t waste the rookie-3 year salaries on guys who aren’t going to make it. Almost like starting everyone as a second or third year player but on reduced first year salaries because they are already essentially “captives” of a lower salary rate system.
And good players who might otherwise go to college and enter the big-buck oppty of the draft might feel they have to go the “alphabet minor league” route rather than losing their chance to get pro training or risk injury.
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@JayHawkFanToo Cole surely is screwing up that <12 minute avg:
10.5 mins, 9th season! Nice stats you found, btw.
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Simplest solution is for the NCAA to adopt NBA playing rules, give coaches more practice time, and let schools count participating in a sport as a 3 or 6 hour credit class. That way it doesn’t mess with student loans or insurance. Students who are actually playing a sport as a way to pay for school can still do that. Players who are just making a pit stop don’t even need to really go to class and can focus more on basketball. I mean the whole point of college is to prep you for your career. No reason that people who will be future professional basketball players shouldn’t be getting the best possible preparation they can for that career path.
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Arthur can probably top that.
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KU has had some quality young NBA guys that have come back and finished their degrees.
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I thought trade school was to prepare you for work; College is supposed to create well rounded individuals who are work ready. Thus the English class requirements for Engineers.
Unfortunatly many major student athletes are allowed to skimp on the academics; something that they can use beyond age 30.
I agree with @kcmatt7 there needs to be a UNC like courses for athletes that don’t care about their future outside of sports. Freshman level only. Maybe a class in money management (and how to pick your friends) so society isn’t paying for these guys later.
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The biggest problem with the academies (other than it messes with MY college basketball!!!) is the kids that washout have nowhere to go. No degree. No work contacts. Just basketball.
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Every athlete can use an education! Part of it is just being disciplined, it’s free, you have the best tutors. It’s a free handout to better yourself.
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@Crimsonorblue22 And they can use it to enrich the rest of their entire life.
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dylans said:
The biggest problem with the academies (other than it messes with MY college basketball!!!) is the kids that washout have nowhere to go. No degree. No work contacts. Just basketball.
Maybe they should add college funding (to a public in-state school or something) when the career is over to make it a good alternative. Add more for each year in the academy, with prep classes for them, too. The union could even fund part of it.
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The European model of development is what the NBA is looking at. In European soccer academies, the players do their academics during the day, but then train with the same staff and in the same system as the professional team. The players literally go to school (something like a prep school) during the day, then train at night.
Real Madrid and Bayern Munich have two of the oldest and most well established soccer youth academies in the world. They use the same strategies, tactics and facilities as the pro teams they are associated with. That is the idea that the NBA is considering.
The NBA has started this development with the G-League. Currently, the G League has 26 teams, with the 4 teams without a G League affiliate planning to start one in the next few years. That’s the first step. Once they have that established, the next step will be to build a development center around that. Houston used their G League affiliate to test out their aggressive three point shooting strategy. Other teams are using the G League to develop front office and coaching talent.
That’s only going to expand. The Euro model already shows how to do it, with a facility dedicated to education, and a separate facility for sports. The Euro model also adds an element to the education side of things. In the US right now, athletes are discouraged from challenging academics because HS and college coaches don’t want guys struggling in classes. At academies, that’s not an issue because they have all of the facilities right there for the kid. If a kid is struggling academically, maybe they take a few weeks off from games (no HS coach worried about what that will do to his playoff chances because the focus is on development) while they work on their studies. You don’t have to build your class schedule around athletics because that’s already done for you. That means if you have an interest in science and want to also play at the academy, you can do both.
The Euro model already lays out the architecture. Its just a question of when it goes into place.
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@dylans MLB solves that problem by putting a stipulation in the contracts of most players that they will pay for college if they don’t make it to the pros.
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Good thing there are child labor laws in the US. Otherwise it sounds like we will have to pay to watch our kids play biddy ball soon. Nba prep league and all…
