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College basketball commission report: End one-and-done, lifetime ban for cheating coaches, and more

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Machinator

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http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/23311712/commission-college-basketball-shares-recommendations-ncaa

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The Commission on College Basketball recommended an end to the one-and-done rule, potential lifetime bans for rule-breakers and changes to the relationship between the NCAA and apparel companies.

"We need to put the college back in college basketball," commission chairman and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday at a news conference in Indianapolis after the independent panel released a detailed 60-page report.

"Our focus has been to strengthen the collegiate model -- not to move toward one that brings aspects of professionalism into the game," Rice added.

NCAA president Mark Emmert has said he wants reforms in place by August.

"The NCAA appreciates the thorough review and comprehensive work by the Commission on College Basketball," Emmert said in a statement. "The Board of Governors and Division I Board of Directors will now review the independent commission's recommendations to determine the appropriate next steps."

The 12-member commission was formed in the wake of last fall's FBI investigation into corruption and fraud in college basketball and recruiting. Ten people were arrested in September, including officials at Adidas and assistant coaches at Arizona, Oklahoma State, USC and Auburn. NC State and Kansas were mentioned in more recent court documents. Former Louisville head coach Rick Pitino also lost his job as a result of the probe, with the Cardinals allegedly paying $100,000 to the family of five-star recruit Brian Bowen to sign with the school.

The committee's report called the environment surrounding college basketball "a toxic mix of perverse incentives to cheat," and said that responsibility for the current mess goes all the way up to university presidents.

Ending one-and-done is the biggest change suggested by the commission, even though it's an NBA rule -- which Rice pointed out. The commission wants 18-year olds to again be eligible for the NBA draft, allowing a path to the pros directly out of high school.

The rule was implemented in 2006 despite the success of straight-from-high-school stars such as LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett.

The most significant thing is that the dialogue has been opened up," committee member and Hall of Famer David Robinson told ESPN's Get Up on Wednesday. "All these different constituents [NBA, apparel companies, NCAA, coaches, administrators] ... came to the table to discuss some of these matters, which were in silos before. It opened up a tremendous dialogue.

"I think we all agree we have to do what's in the best interests of these kids. We have to give them options, open up their eyes to the reality of the situation: 'What percent of you are going to play in the pros?' The rest of them need an education. That is what's going to be the real value here -- going to college. Not so you can skip through college and get to the NBA as quickly as possible."

If a change is not made to one-and-done, Rice said the commission will look into options, such as making freshmen ineligible or locking a scholarship for three or four years if the recipient leaves a program after one year.

"One-and-done has to go one way or another," Rice told the Associated Press.

The NBA and NBPA conversations on eliminating the one-and-done rule are centered on the 2020 draft as the earliest possible date for change, league sources told ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski on Wednesday. The Players Association's executive committee, including president Chris Paul, won't meet until after the NBA season.

The commission also recommends college players should be able to return to school if they go undrafted, as long as they don't sign a professional contract. As it stands, players can test NBA draft waters without an agent, but must withdraw their name weeks before the draft should they decide to return to school.

"Erroneously entering the NBA draft is not the kind of misjudgment that should deprive student-athletes of the valuable opportunity to enter college or to continue in college while playing basketball," said Rice, who added they considered, but did not recommend, the "baseball rule" that requires two or three years of college if prospects don't go straight to the draft out of high school.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver and NBPA executive director Michele Roberts released a joint statement Wednesday saying they will "continue to assess" the commission's suggestions on draft eligibility rules.

"We support NCAA policy and enforcement reforms that will better safeguard the well-being of players while imposing greater accountability on representatives and programs that fail to uphold the values of the game," the joint statement said. "We also share the commission's concern with the current state of youth basketball and echo that all stakeholders -- including the NBA, NBPA, NCAA, and USA Basketball -- have a collective responsibility to help bring about positive change."

Another change to the current process suggested by the commission would be enabling high school and college players to sign with certified agents before deciding on whether to enter the NBA draft.

The FBI investigation into college basketball last fall centered around Christian Dawkins, a "runner" working for ASM Sports, a sports agency headed by Andy Miller. Dawkins allegedly helped funnel money to prospects through assistant coaches and shoe companies. Once a player signs with an agent or accepts money from an agent, he is ineligible according to current NCAA rules.

"Players should be able to receive meaningful assessment of professional prospects earlier with assistance from certified agents," Rice said. "If NCAA rules do not allow them to receive that advice openly, they will often seek it illicitly."

Rice also called for an overhaul to the investigative and enforcement arms of the NCAA. In addition to using independent and neutral investigators, the commission recommends much harsher NCAA penalties for cheaters and rule-breakers. For Level I violations, that includes a five-year postseason ban and loss of all revenue sharing in postseason play.

Most noticeably, the commission recommends stiffer penalties for coaches that knowingly break rules -- including potential lifetime bans.

"Currently, the rewards for violating the rules far outweigh the risks," Rice said.

The commission also called out university presidents, saying administrators can't be allowed to turn a blind eye to infractions. It also recommends university presidents should be required to "certify annually that they have conducted due diligence and that their athletic programs comply with NCAA rules."

In a direct reference to the recent NCAA investigation into academic fraud at North Carolina, the commission recommended the NCAA have jurisdiction into that area. She said the loophole that all students, not just athletes, were able to benefit from the fraudulent classes should not be a legitimate defense.

The commission also addressed the grassroots basketball scene -- which Rice called an "ungoverned space" -- and apparel companies.

Currently, there are five live periods from April to July where college coaches can go to watch prospects at events sponsored by Nike, Adidas, Under Armour or run independently. The commission recommends the NCAA start its own regional events in July, and make them the only events that coaches can attend that month.

The commission also called for the NCAA to work closer with USA Basketball, the NBA and the NBPA to start a new youth basketball program. It's not yet clear how the governing body would pay for some of the proposals.

Adidas was at the forefront of the FBI investigation, with two Adidas officials among those arrested. According to court records, they allegedly helped funnel money to prospects in order to get them to sign with Adidas-sponsored schools. The commission calls for more financial transparency in this area.

"It is time that the money flowing from apparel companies and other third parties into non-scholastic basketball be disclosed and accounted for in order to address the corruption we see in the sport," Rice said.

The commission does not make any recommendations in the area of paying collegiate athletes or enabling them to earn money off their names or likenesses. Rice did address the issue, but acquiesced to the courts for now.

"I know this is an issue on the minds of many, and the Commission thought long and hard about this," she said. "In the end, we respected the fact that that legal ramifications of NCAA action on name, image and likeness are currently before the courts. We don't believe that the NCAA can legislate in this area until the legal parameters become clearer.

"That said, most commissioners believe that the rules on name, image and likeness should be taken up as soon as the legal framework is established. It is hard for the public, and frankly for me, to understand what can be allowed within the college model and what can't be allowed without opening the door to professionalizing college basketball."

At the Final Four, Emmert said he didn't see paying players as a likely option.

"Universities and colleges are have consistently said they don't want to have student-athletes become employees of a university," Emmert said. "They don't want them to be playing for compensation."

The commission, in addition to Rice, also includes NBA Hall of Famers David Robinson and Grant Hill, former head coaches John Thompson III and Mike Montgomery, school presidents, athletic directors and the chairman of USA Basketball.

It was tasked to focus on three areas: the relationship of the NCAA with apparel companies, grassroots basketball and agents; the NCAA's relationship with the NBA and the one-and-done rule; and the relationship between schools and the NCAA.

Rice presented the commission's report to the NCAA's Board of Governors and Division I Board of Directors at the association's headquarters Wednesday. She called the crisis in college basketball "first and foremost a problem of failed accountability and lax responsibility."

Said Emmert at the Final Four: "Just to be blunt about it, you don't waste Condoleezza Rice's time if you're not serious about it."

ESPN reported in November that the group met with NBA commissioner Adam Silver and NBPA executive director Michele Roberts. Emmert has also said the commission met with agents and officials from apparel companies.

Tthe commission's report admonished those within college sports who use the NCAA as a scapegoat for the problems in basketball, saying universities and individuals are accountable for keeping the game clean.

"When those institutions and those responsible for leading them short-circuit rules, ethics and norms in order to achieve on-court success, they alone are responsible," the commission wrote. "Too often, these individuals hide behind the NCAA when they are the ones most responsible for the degraded state of intercollegiate athletics, in general, and college basketball in particular."

 

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Cameltoe

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I agree that the one-and-done situation isn't doing much for college basketball and should be eliminated.

I agree that not letting players return to college if they enter the draft but go undrafted is stupid and should be eliminated.

I don't agree, however, that the game at the highest levels can ever be "cleaned up" so long as the valuable players remain exploited, unpaid laborers. There's just too much money being generated by college basketball and too hard to separate the value of the service from the kid/family providing it.

Lifetime bans would be crazy. I think that's too far to go. The other option is of course owning up to the fact that the money won't be removed from the equation and have the teams actually pay their top recruits and have the payroll publicly disclosed. This will never happen because none of these NCAA people want to see a world where it's common knowledge that Duke's starting five are making an average of 200k per player this year. But that is the reality and if you don't own up to it, you'll never escape the "under the table, last guy to get caught wins" state of affairs we have had forever.

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Bevo

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No matter how much you pay college players, someone can always pay them more. In other words, Kentucky will still pay above and beyond whatever is the agreed upon salary because they want to win at any cost.

 

Personally, I think college athletics needs to go the other direction. It needs to be de-emphasized. Make sports more like how the Ivy League handles them and let minor leagues rule college football, basketball, and baseball. The student athlete mantra is a farce and should be exposed as such. Yeah, it will hurt me when the best players aren't at UT especially since I barely care about pro sports. But, it is the cleanest solution to limit the corruption and hypocrisy of college athletics.

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XYZ

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3 hours ago, Bevo said:

Personally, I think college athletics needs to go the other direction. It needs to be de-emphasized. Make sports more like how the Ivy League handles them and let minor leagues rule college football, basketball, and baseball. The student athlete mantra is a farce and should be exposed as such. Yeah, it will hurt me when the best players aren't at UT especially since I barely care about pro sports. But, it is the cleanest solution to limit the corruption and hypocrisy of college athletics.

That’s a courageous take.

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Huckleberry

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http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/25015812/g-league-offer-professional-path-elite-prospects-not-wanting-go-one-done-route-ncaa

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In a move that could challenge the NCAA's monopoly on elite talent, the NBA's G League is creating a new venture as an alternative to the one-and-done route for the best American basketball prospects, league president Malcolm Turner told ESPN.

As part of a newly formed "professional path" starting in the summer of 2019, the G League will offer "Select Contracts" worth $125,000 to elite prospects who are at least 18 years old but not yet eligible for the NBA draft. It will target recent or would-be high school graduates who otherwise would have likely spent just one season playing college basketball, enticing them not only with a six-figure salary but also the opportunity to benefit from NBA infrastructure, as well as a bevy of off-court development programs "geared towards facilitating and accelerating their transition to the pro game," Turner said.

Without the restrictions of the NCAA's amateurism rules, players will also be free to hire agents, profit off their likeness and pursue marketing deals from sneaker companies and the like, which could be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in endorsement opportunities to top prospects.

In April, the Commission on College Basketball recommended that the NCAA and NBA embrace alternative options for one-and-done caliber prospects.

"Elite high school players with NBA prospects and no interest in a college degree should not be forced to attend college, often for less than a year," commission chair Condoleezza Rice told the Associated Press. "One-and-done has to go, one way or another."

While changes to the NBA's age limit likely won't be implemented until the 2022 draft, the league considers this a response to such criticism.

"The broader basketball community has called for the NBA to enhance our G League offerings," Turner told ESPN. "We believe this is an answer to that call. We believe this is a thoughtful and responsive answer."

Through its unique new partnership with USA Basketball, the NBA will have a captive audience of America's most elite prospects during the NCAA Final Four in April and at the USA Basketball Junior National Team minicamp in October, where the G League will look to introduce this professional path to the many future NBA players in attendance, as well as their families, according to Turner.

Seven of the top 10 high school players in the 2019 ESPN 100 remain uncommitted to college programs, and the G League landing any of them could have huge ramifications -- for future paths to the draft for star players, the popularity of the NBA's development league and the college basketball talent pool.

Turner said the league will not pursue those players who have already committed to colleges, but the professional path would be an alternative to those prospects who make a choice on their own to decommit. Turner also said the G League will be selective with the players they look to bring into the program -- with a strong emphasis on character and readiness to join a pro league.

Many important details are still yet to be decided, including the way in which elite prospects are identified, pursued and then assigned to G League teams. How many players will the G League look to include in its first iteration of this venture? Who will determine which prospects are good enough to make the cut? Will this venture be open to international players as well, including Canadians or Australians who often matriculate to the NBA via American high schools or college basketball? What about Europeans?

These are questions that Turner says will be answered in the near future with the help of a soon-to-be-hired dedicated program manager who will oversee the G League professional path, as well as a working committee that will tackle many of these tasks.

While full logistics still need to be worked out, the G League intends to offer prospects on its professional path access to NBA facilities, player development coaches and training staffs well in advance of training camps in late October. That is important considering the long layoff between the end of a player's high school career in the spring and the start of the season in November.

The G League will look to supplement the basketball aspect of this venture with a significant off-court component as well, borrowing from its existing slate of development and educational tools that include life skills, post-career planning and academic scholarship opportunities through partnerships with universities.

Athletes will be restricted to playing only one season on a G League Select Contract, after which point they will become automatically eligible for that year's NBA draft. Article X of the NBA collective bargaining agreement already covers this for all draft-eligible American prospects: If a player renders services under contract for any non-NBA professional team prior to Jan. 1, he is automatically placed in the next draft.

The program also will only be available to players who are at least 18 years old (on Sept. 15, prior to the start of the season), eligible for the following NBA draft (turning 19 in the calendar year of that draft and a year removed from their high school graduating class) and not enrolled in college.

The program does come with some potential concerns for draft prospects, the G League and NBA teams:

• Even if the venture attracts top talent, will these 18- and 19-year olds make an impact at the G League level, where the average age of players not under NBA contract was 25 at the start of last season?

Given the significant difference in physical maturity and experience, G League Select prospects could be risking their draft stock while their peers face NCAA competition. It will take some time for a baseline to be established for what prospects can be expected to produce against this level of competition.

• Will there be any conflict between Select prospects and other G League players, many of whom will be making significantly less money? Regular G League players $35,000 as a base salary for a five-month season, with bonuses, NBA call-ups, two-way deals and Exhibit 10 contracts providing paths to earning more.

• NBA teams will likely want to attract potential first-round prospects to their G League affiliates in order to gather as much information as possible prior to the draft, but will G League coaching staffs be as heavily invested in the development of players who might not be as equipped to help them win games?

G League officials are still considering how to address these concerns, with room for flexibility both before the program officially launches and once it is running. It will be fascinating to see how the college basketball world reacts to competition for its biggest stars and most marketable athletes, especially as the sport is engulfed in an ongoing corruption trial.

The NBA is expected to lower its age limit in time for the 2022 draft and allow high school players who have graduated to go straight to the NBA without spending a year in college or the G League, but league sources say a venture of this nature may end up being a model that is explored as a potential compromise, depending on how things play out over the next three years.

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pacman

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On 4/25/2018 at 7:33 PM, Bevo said:

No matter how much you pay college players, someone can always pay them more. In other words, Kentucky will still pay above and beyond whatever is the agreed upon salary because they want to win at any cost.

 

Personally, I think college athletics needs to go the other direction. It needs to be de-emphasized. Make sports more like how the Ivy League handles them and let minor leagues rule college football, basketball, and baseball. The student athlete mantra is a farce and should be exposed as such. Yeah, it will hurt me when the best players aren't at UT especially since I barely care about pro sports. But, it is the cleanest solution to limit the corruption and hypocrisy of college athletics.

Agreed. Too much money flying around to pretend it's an amateur sport.

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Machinator

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16 hours ago, pacman said:

Adrian seems rather clueless about top basketball players and their motivations. Shoe companies will be jumping to be first on the next top 18 year old hoops player.

How many "top" basketball players will have the personal brand to sign lucrative shoe deals off the bat?

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rickyspub

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On ‎10‎/‎19‎/‎2018 at 9:07 AM, Machinator said:

How many "top" basketball players will have the personal brand to sign lucrative shoe deals off the bat?

Define 'lucrative'. Zero dollars at college or another $100K on top of the G-League salary. I think $200K+ is pretty damn lucrative for an 18 year old.

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