Conference Commissioners Pushing Freshmen Ineligibility for Basketball

Mavric

Mavric

Yoda
Staff member
The item was No. 7 on a 10-point list for NCAA reform ideas that Pac-12 presidents and chancellors sent their Power Five colleagues last May.


7. Address the “one and done” phenomenon in men's basketball. If the National Basketball Association and its Players Association are unable to agree on raising the age limit for players, consider restoring the freshman ineligibility rule in men's basketball.
Several conference commissioners say it's time to consider making freshmen -- or at least some of them -- ineligible, again, for the first time since the NCAA rule changed in 1972.

One-and-done players in men's basketball are the main reason some commissioners want this discussion to occur, and it's not clear whether freshman eligibility interest would decrease should NBA commissioner Adam Silver get his way by pushing the NBA's age limit from 19 to 20 years old.

“I've had conversations with several commissioners about (freshman ineligibility),” Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott said. “We are pushing, and I think you will see much more serious conversations about it in the coming months and year.”

There are many unanswered questions, of course. Would scholarships have to be added and increase costs? Would all freshmen have to sit, or only those who do not reach an academic benchmark? Would this only be for basketball, or for other sports as well? Would athletic skills become rusty without competition? Is the idea only to better prepare athletes academically or is it to also integrate them socially? Does freshman ineligibility even accomplish one or both of those goals? Could this idea help repair the widening cracks in the NCAA's model, which is being threatened by many sides?

The opposition to freshman ineligibility would be heated -- and some conference commissioners strongly oppose it already. Others believe now is the time to consider it again given court cases that could allow players to be paid, Congressional scrutiny into college sports, and a unionization attempt to make Northwestern football players designated as employees. A new lawsuit against the NCAA and North Carolina attacks the heart of the NCAA's stated mission: Are enough high-profile college athletes truly being educated?
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NBA/NFL need to change their rules. That is what is hamstringing NCAA. Professional leagues get reduced risk and free scouting, while Amateur sports get smeared.

 
QMany said:
StPaulHusker said:
QMany said:
NBA/NFL need to change their rules. That is what is hamstringing NCAA. Professional leagues get reduced risk and free scouting, while Amateur sports get smeared.
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All the while the NCAA makes Billions of dollars while being hamstrung.
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You mention revenue but conveniently left out expenses.
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I guess I conveniently left out their $61 million surplus in fiscal 2013 too. Preceded by a $71 million surplus the year before that. And $60+ million the year before that.

 
I don't like it, but it's a patchwork solution to an even dumber rule that is out of their control re: the NBA.

 
Agree. It has no chance to pass. Only thing it's doing is giving others one more negative recruiting tactic.

 
To Machen, Delany’s idea is less a product of nostalgia for the way things were before the freshman ban was lifted in the early 1970s and more a product of a practical need to prove that the wealthiest athletic programs aren’t just running quasi-professional football and basketball programs without paying taxes on the revenues. Would Machen have made the above statement if he still sat in his old office at Florida’s Tigert Hall? Maybe. He was always brutally frank, but that may have been too bold an admission for a sitting president to make.


​Machen believes the collegiate model works. For evidence, he points to graduation rates for athletes in every sport except football and men’s basketball. Most of the others outpace the general student body, and the success beyond graduation for former college athletes is well documented anecdotally. The problem, Machen said, is anyone can see that football and men’s basketball at the highest level aren’t using the collegiate model. Players are essentially required to practice year-round, which makes it tough for the NCAA’s lawyers or lobbyists to keep a straight face when they call college sports an avocation that enhances the college experience. “You look at the schedules of these kids,” Machen said. “They are essentially in a full-time mode.”
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