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I'm generally not a fan of the uber-power wielding conference commissioners, but I agree with Jim Delaney on this one. I'd like to see high school football and basketball players have the ability to skip college and begin professional development (whether in the NBA, D-League, etc) just the same as similar athletes can in hockey and baseball (not to mention golf, tennis, etc).

Is there any chance the NBA would back track on their current philosophy?

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story ... ll-changes

What job is he referring to...College sports are nothing like the minor leagues, never have been, never were intended to be. Minor leagues athletes are employees & get compensated/protected as such, not "student-athletes" on schollies. Make it happen yesterday!

Nothing stops a player from going overseas for a year. Kids choose college because the ncaa tournament is a BFD and if they have to spend a year doing something besides the pros then they want to compete for the final four/national championship

MUBoxer wrote:Nothing stops a player from going overseas for a year. Kids choose college because the ncaa tournament is a BFD and if they have to spend a year doing something besides the pros then they want to compete for the final four/national championship

So let them have the same option as those overseas players who can come here to the professional leagues at 18 and we'll see...Why limit an 18 year older here to flying across the globe to follow their career ambitions here in the US.

TheHall wrote:

MUBoxer wrote:Nothing stops a player from going overseas for a year. Kids choose college because the ncaa tournament is a BFD and if they have to spend a year doing something besides the pros then they want to compete for the final four/national championship

So let them have the same option as those overseas players who can come here to the professional leagues at 18 and we'll see...Why limit an 18 year older here to flying across the globe to follow their career ambitions here in the US.

Isn't the age 19 and out of high school? That's what I thought it was.

As to football, the muscles/bone structure/body composition of 18 year olds are not settled yet. You can't put an undeveloped individual in with grown men unless you want to take on the (massive) extra liability. Football is dangerous enough as it is.

Football is a different animal but you can't convince me that the NBA should stop HS players from entering the draft.

marquette wrote:

TheHall wrote:

MUBoxer wrote:Nothing stops a player from going overseas for a year. Kids choose college because the ncaa tournament is a BFD and if they have to spend a year doing something besides the pros then they want to compete for the final four/national championship

So let them have the same option as those overseas players who can come here to the professional leagues at 18 and we'll see...Why limit an 18 year older here to flying across the globe to follow their career ambitions here in the US.

Isn't the age 19 and out of high school? That's what I thought it was.

As to football, the muscles/bone structure/body composition of 18 year olds are not settled yet. You can't put an undeveloped individual in with grown men unless you want to take on the (massive) extra liability. Football is dangerous enough as it is.

19 is correct...I was coming at it from the wrong direction...while Rubio or tony parker, etc were making a living playering high quality professional ball players in the state's are playing high school or AAU ball...that doesn't represent the same opportunity even if at 18 players pull a Brandon Jennings move.

As far as football, if the NCAA got out of they way, minor league systems would pop up overnight...its a multi-billion dollar business. They could put an age limit but pay atheletes as pros still.

For both sports though its not all about the NBA or NFL, its about being able to make a living as a professional period.

There's really only 1 way for football players to make a living playing football, the NFL. You could say the Arena Football League or the Canadian Football League are also viable options, but are you really going to be able to retire off of what you make? As to a minor league with an age limit, yeah it's possible. I just don't see anyone wanting to pay for it. The NFL already has it in college ball, so they have no motivation to set it up. I also doubt the athletes would get much for compensation. Minor league players generally get somewhere in $30-40,000/year, if I'm not mistaken. The fanfare of minor leagues that aren't associated with colleges is also minimal. Is that worth the injuries and permanent damage to your brain/body? These kids are already getting more than that from the schools in terms of room/board even without the free education. They are also getting the opportunity to move on after 4 years degree in hand and a potential career on the horizon. That seems much more reasonable to me than hitting age 22, the minor league says "you can't play any more, you're too old" and the NFL says "you're not good enough to play here." So they limp on, bad knees/ankles etc. into a life without any means of ever earning more than what they had 4 years ago.

NBA can do what they want, basketball is much less physical than football.

How many Major League Baseball players have a college Degrees; and of those who won the College World Series for their school? No one really stands out to me. It also seems that MLB is developing a lot of Latin American kids of late. So if a basketball kid from here who is really not college material can develop in Europe or elsewhere all the more power to them.

marquette wrote:There's really only 1 way for football players to make a living playing football, the NFL. You could say the Arena Football League or the Canadian Football League are also viable options, but are you really going to be able to retire off of what you make? As to a minor league with an age limit, yeah it's possible. I just don't see anyone wanting to pay for it. The NFL already has it in college ball, so they have no motivation to set it up. I also doubt the athletes would get much for compensation. Minor league players generally get somewhere in $30-40,000/year, if I'm not mistaken. The fanfare of minor leagues that aren't associated with colleges is also minimal. Is that worth the injuries and permanent damage to your brain/body? These kids are already getting more than that from the schools in terms of room/board even without the free education. They are also getting the opportunity to move on after 4 years degree in hand and a potential career on the horizon. That seems much more reasonable to me than hitting age 22, the minor league says "you can't play any more, you're too old" and the NFL says "you're not good enough to play here." So they limp on, bad knees/ankles etc. into a life without any means of ever earning more than what they had 4 years ago.

NBA can do what they want, basketball is much less physical than football.

Michigan can get 100k people to watch "minor league" football against EMU & you don't think if the NCAA lost its anti-trust protection that no market would pop up to get those 100K butts in the stands.