NCAA Commission on Basketball report

Not sure if this has already been posted but interesting comments (they also make a comment on the UNC fraudulent classes situation).

< www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/sto...recommendations-ncaa >

From the report: "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,"

As long as there is incentive to move players to schools under contract to shoe & apparel companies, there will be money funneled to players or players' families under the table. This recommendation has no teeth at all. How would anyone propose to police this activity?

I'm going to have to download the whole report and sift through it, but I've got some first impressions from the article.

I like:
>working to eliminate the 1 and done. Even if it means not allowing freshmen to play, or locking scholarships for 4 years (kid leaves early and the school has to wait until his scholly would have expired before they can use it for the next kid).

>Focus on college....I honestly don't care if the overall level of play at the college level dropped by the tiny percentage it would if every NBA-bound kid skipped college. College fans root for the name on the front of the jersey, so the sport wouldn't suffer if actual college students were competing.

>Allowing kids to come back if they're not drafted. Seems like a no brainer.

>Strong enforcement, bigger penalties, and potential for a lifetime ban for big offenders (I'll call this the "Calipari Clause").

Not sure about:
>allowing kids to hire agents. That will be tough to regulate as now agents will not only be advising kids whether to go pro, but also will be involved in the college choice decision. I imagine a world where an agent is hired by a 9th grader's family, and that agent "loans" that family hundreds of thousands of dollars based on future potential earnings, and then is wheeling and dealing with college coaches over recruitment. Ewwww.


I also found it interesting that it seems that from a technical standpoint, UNC skipped out on getting hammered because the fake classes were also made available to a handful of non-athletes. Since a handful of regular students got to take independent fake classes, I guess that excuses the hundreds of athletes (an overwhelming majority of those who took the classes) from having done anything wrong. What a load of bovine feces.