CBS has an article noting that college basketball is losing more players every year to the NBA, and wondering if the NCAA can reverse the trend. I don't know that we really want to reverse the trend. The problem is not players not playing college ball, but the disruption that is caused for college programs by the constant movement of players in and out of the program.
If a player is ready for the NBA out of high school, let him go. If economic factors force him to go to Europe out of high school, more power to him. But college basketball is a separate entity from the NBA. Pro players are employees. College players are students. There IS a difference. If the players don't want to be students, don't make them. But if they want to go to school, and the schools are going to shell out a tremendous amount of money in scholarships, etc., then there needs to be some commitment from the players to the school. Obviously, they cannot be forced to stay, but if the leave, then there needs to be a significant penalty regarding any future college play.
I agree that we need to stop the trend of players leaving college basketball. My point is that a lot of those players ought not to have been in college to begin with, for any of several reasons. We have forced a situation that ought not to be, and like any such, it has had a disruptive effect.
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