Can you remind us of your plan?
OK, one these days maybe I will just put it on word so I can copy paste it! LOL
It is multi faceted and does require the NCAA and the NBA to come together for the best interest of the players at that is a taller bar than it may seem.
Part 1 - Provide and education on what these kids are interested in rather than the standard college classes they really could care less about. What I am talking about is a program specifically geared for athletes looking to become professionals in the future. It would have top be standardized across the entire NCAA. IT would feature all aspects that a professional athlete should know ASAP, how to handle agents and those looking for future paydays off of them like investment guru's ect. Sports medicine and training techniques, how to communicate thru the media, the pitfalls of social media, how to transition to a world where you are no longer an active athlete, ect. Classes taught in part by former athletes to current athletes.
Kids may care less about math & science but they care very much about their days of being professional athletes. Teach a kid something he is interested in and he will become a student, teach him something he has no interest in and he is not going to do the work. I think an education has to be part of a college athletes experience, a real education, not just enough to get them thru so they can act like students.
I would have annual testing by a neutral 3rd party of all NCAA athletes to insure they are actually learning and not just acting as students but really can't read. So kids in high school have a real reason to learn.
Part 2 - $$$ for players from apparel companies - I would take ALL apparel money and have it 100% paid out to a central authority, like an NCAA bank. I would then have a annual lotto based on % of current apparel deals, for example NIke would have the most shots where the apparel contracts are draw for each year or for a span like 3yrs. That school for example drawing Addias would use Addias apparel for that span of time and then the lotto is redone. That way apparel companies would not have inducement to steer kids to specific schools, they would be dealing with the NCAA and not the individual schools. If that lotto was done yearly then they would not even have the time to know where to steer them, of course their ability to deliver the numbers of needed apparel would have to be worked out on a time line.
Next, ALL apparel money, meaning what is paid to coaches and schools is paid to the NCAA Central Bank and a % is worked out where part goes to the schools based on numbers of sports programs fielded and travel schedules and maybe an extra inducement for winning and running a clean program is a larger cut. None of the apparel money would be paid to coaches, NONE. Coaches make enough without the apparel money and any inducement to get in to the dirty tricks with apparel companies should be removed.
The % paid out to the players is an equal amount to every team member of every D-1 program, your star makes as much from this as your walk on does. 15 player limit, over 350 schools but the players would get a healthy check and especially so for the kid that will never be able to play pro ball for example.
Part 3 - Players drafted and $$$ - 2 problems exist today that force a lot of these kids to leave college early, the 1 and done rule for sure but maybe an even greater issue is the rookie salary cap scale and term. Most rookie NBA players spend the rookie contract term learning how to play, what they used to learn in 4yrs of college play they now must learn on the NBA's dime. Problem is the draft now is only 2 rounds so if you go undrafted, you can no longer improve your stock by playing in the NCAA and it is even harder to move up thru the NBADL. I think most will agree, the NBA got players more ready to produce back in the day the players played NCAA ball for 4yrs and then entered the draft. Back when they did that however, a kid could command full market value out of college and not the greatly reduced rookie scale now in place.
So, I would have kids able to enter the draft at anytime past high school, drafted or not, they would have the option to pick a college and play for that college. In other words Bagley could enter the draft and still play for duke. ALL of his rookie salary money, if he elected to play NCAA ball would be placed in an annuity, he would not have millions cash in hand. The drafting team would pay for the exact cost of his scholarship to the college team he plays for, it is a version of draft and stash that the NBA has done many times with the euro leagues. For every season of NCAA ball the kid plays it ticks down a year of rookie salary cap clock, that way if the kid plays 4yrs of college ball, the NBA has a great look at him so they know more what they are getting, and the kid learns from college coaches how to play the darn game. A kid that was drafted out of high school that plays college ball for 4yrs would have a really sweet annuity and could then get a market value contract because the rookie salary cap term had been served.
Now I would have a hardship clause in this, if a kid truly needed to help family, a reasonable amount depending on the need could be borrowed from that annuity, like the rules you have on your 401K now. That way family would not have to live on the streets or in high crime areas but I* am not talking about buying bling or hundred thousand dollar sports cars, i am talking true hardship without excess.
Maybe those kids that initially go undrafted can work their way back to draft status, it is only after drafted would they have the options I am talking about, like the rookie salary cap clock ticking, they would actually have to have a contract before that could happen. Now the team that drafts them would have their rights for the 1st 4yrs, no free agency for the 1st four years of playing in the NBA. To clarify, if the kid plays 4yrs of college ball and was drafted right out of high school, the drafting team would have his rights for 4more yrs after college ball.
NBA vets could hang in the league longer because their spots are not taken by cheap rookies, NBA coaches could spend less time teaching and more time coaching, which is why they are NBA coaches in the first place, they should not have to teach professional NBA players how to box out for example.
Part 4 - Apparel deals and sports agents - First any apparel company caught cheating would be suspended from the NCAA apparel lotto for 3yrs, want to risk that? Any sports agent cheating the system would receive a life time ban from the pro league and face criminal charges for anti trust.
Now I would allow only certified and approved sports agents negotiate apparel deals for a kid at any time after high school and the agent could go ahead and get his cut but ALL of the kid's money would again be stashed in his annuity and for example able to grow for 4yrs of college, kid would have a heck of a nice pay day after 4yrs of rookie salary, apparel money, and ability to get a market value contract. The sports agency would not receive any of the initial NBA contract money no matter if the kid played those 1st 4yrs in college or the NBA, that scale is already determined so there is no negotiation.
Conclusion, yes, lot to be worked out but I give the kids real reason to not only play in the NCAA but to stay for their entire eligibility. I give the players more money to live on while in college, I give them a course of study that is of unique interest to them, and I give them huge paydays after playing college ball for 4yrs, I give players across the board on NCAA teams a much bigger annual stipend. I give them the option if they chose to forego college and enter the league at any time but I give NBA teams the ability to stall that so they can get a better look at a kid and have him taught how to play by college coaches that have always been more teachers of the game.
I remove the reasons this steering scandal occurred, I give the kid the ability to get his family out of bad situations, I teach him what to expect as a millionaire pro player and not have to learn the hard way about how many women come at you looking to have you pay for their babies.
And I give fans what they want, more of the better athletes playing for 4yrs for the program they love and at the same time improve the quality of the NBA game as well as the college game. It is a radical change but we see what doing nothing has got us, a radical change is needed.
