NCAA President Mark Emmert, in Atlanta to watch this city's slice of March Madness over the weekend, made clear his strong desire for college basketball to be rid of the NBA's one-and-done rule.
“We all know that there are young men who would love to go right into professional basketball, and there’s not really a viable opportunity for them to do that. There should be,” Emmert said in an interview with the AJC. “They should have choice. They should have the opportunity to say, ‘You know, I really don’t want to go to college if I can go right into professional ball.’
“Of course, that requires the NBA to change their rules, not us.”
An NBA rule, in place since 2006, requires players to be at least 19 years old and one year removed from their high school class’ graduation to be eligible for the league’s draft. That rule forces some players, who otherwise would jump directly to the NBA, to play college ball for one season.
But the ongoing federal fraud and bribery investigation that has rocked college basketball has generated some momentum toward reforming the college game, including the one-and-done rule.
“It would be great for a young man and his family to be able to say, ‘I have a chance to go to the NBA, I’ve got a chance to go to the G League with a better salary there, I can go to Europe, I can go to Australia,’” Emmert said. “If they had (such a range of professional options), they can choose that, or they can say, ‘Yeah, but I want to go to college, I want to participate in that experience, I want to be a college ballplayer, I want to be a student.’ And if they have the ability after that to go play professionally, great, we’ve got a good deal for them.
“But they should be able to choose: Do I want to be a pro – an employee – or do I want to be a student?”
The NBA and its players association appear open to exploring changes in the one-and-done rule, but it’s unclear how quickly action might be taken, particularly given that the current collective bargaining agreement runs through the 2023-24 season (with mutual opt-outs one year earlier).
Ideas frequently floated include allowing players to enter the NBA draft directly out of high school and expanding the developmental NBA G League and, in turn, requiring players who choose to enter college to stay for at least two years before leaving for the NBA.
Emmert expects the independent Commission on College Basketball, which he formed last fall, to recommend wide-ranging reforms to the Division I Board of Governors on April 25. The commission likely will address one-and-done, among other issues, but that rule is ultimately the NBA’s to change, or not.
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