There are not a whole slew of things upon which I agreed with President Obama, but I think this is right on target. I don't see how it could/would work, but I would be interested in learning possibilities.
Last Friday, former President Barack Obama spoke at a major sports analytics conference at MIT. As reported by Reason magazine, he discussed his own career as a so-so high school basketball player, remarked that playing basketball with other people revealed much about their character, and argued that the NBA would be well-served by a junior league "so that the NCAA is not serving as a farm system for the NBA with a bunch of kids who are unpaid but are under enormous financial pressure."
"It's just not a sustainable way of doing business," said Obama. "Then when everybody acts shocked that some kid from extraordinarily poor circumstances who's got 5, 10, 15 million dollars waiting for him is going to be circled by everybody in a context in which people are making billions of dollars, it's not good." Creating an alternative league for people eventually headed to the NBA "won't solve all the problems but what it will do is reduce the hypocrisy" of pretending that all student-athletes are both students and athletes.
There are not a whole slew of things upon which I agreed with President Obama, but I think this is right on target. I don't see how it could/would work, but I would be interested in learning possibilities.
This message was composed entirely from recycled letters of the alphabet using only renewable, caffeinated energy sources.
No trees, wabbits, chimps or whales died in the process.
I'd rather see schools and conferences branch off from NCAA.
With the OAD model we have the discussion is always about the NBA's rule about a player being out of HS a year, etc. I don't see why the NCAA couldn't just come with an agreement with schools where a scholarship offer carries a minimum 2 year commitment. Why do we have to wait for the NBA to change?
Bob Green
At least if the Power 5 schools could separate the revenue generating sports(football, men’s and women’s basketball, maybe baseball) from all the other sports that don’t make money.
Because when it comes to the issue of the NCAA “paying athletes”, how can it differentiate paying a kid that is on a football scholarship from a kid on a lacrosse scholly.
I would think Title IX would also come into play here.
Just seems like an issue that looks easy to solve on paper, but the reality of actually making it work is much more complicated.
The problem of encouraging kids to join a developmental league instead of college is that most of them aren't going to play in the NBA when all is said and done. At least with college the majority of these kids have something to fall back on.
I also can't see a developmental league ever competing with college basketball on a revenue basis or popularity with fans.
I would assume that the two year contract would have to have an "or what" clause. Without an "or what" clause you couldn't enforce it and you would need NBA cooperation. We don't want NBA cooperation, screw them. What if the "or what" clause was that you'd have to pay the school your salary if you left early to play pro ball and 2x that salary if you left early and tried to not make the payment? (just brainstorming here)
One simple solution that the NCAA could implement is that an athlete takes up a scholarship slot for two years, even if they go pro, drop out or transfer after one year the school still has that scholarship unavailable the next year.
I've thought the same system could be used for immediate transfers. Kids can play immediately, but they take up two scholarships, unless they redshirt.
Putting aside whether OAD players would sign such a contract, you would have enforceability issues. Generally, the school would have to prove damages. They would try to characterize the payment as liquidated damages, but it may be an unenforceable penalty.
All of this would be governed by state law, so different states, different ways of doing things. But in any state, if I’m the school, I’m not liking going into court to argue that this player should have to pay me a huge amount of money for deciding not to play for free.
I'm for getting rid of the OAD but not until after next season...
If the NCAA had a clever work-around, they would have tried it by now.
They don't and they haven't. The NBA and the NBA Players Association decide the rules of employment as part of their collective bargaining process.
Jim has it correct NBA has the power of course they could say you have to be 20 or 21 to play in our league or have two years of college...they like any business can have minimum requirements for employment.
Last edited by Bob Green; 03-01-2018 at 04:52 AM.