Remember being sad when you saw your favorite college athletes
play their fourth and final year?
Imagine if they could all of a sudden play one more year.
It’s closer to being reality than you think.
It could happen if an idea proposed by the National Association
of Basketball Coaches ““ and supported by NCAA President Myles
Brand ““ takes effect.
The proposal would give college basketball players a fifth year
of eligibility. It’s a radical idea I hope the NCAA approves
not only for basketball but for all NCAA sports.
“(The proposal is) coherent, and it’s an effort to
make the coach look more like a mentor and a teacher,” Brand
told The Associated Press.
No, it wouldn’t stop any of the elite athletes in
basketball, football or baseball from leaving school early and
going pro.
But it would help out the education of the average
student-athlete and improve the overall quality of intercollegiate
sports.
Yes, if some of you were wondering, this is probably the first
idea ever to come out of the NABC or NCAA that actually helps
student-athletes. This idea isn’t part of a money-making
venture by any means.
In today’s society most students ““ not just
student-athletes ““ take over four years to graduate.
According to the NCAA, it takes the average nonathlete student 4.8
years to graduate.
So why not let athletes in on the five-year plan?
Only a very small percentage of college athletes go pro anyway,
so the majority of them actually need a degree.
And think of what this idea could do to help the overall quality
of college sports.
In basketball, those Cinderella mid-major schools would get even
better, having one more year to develop their players than the
major college programs, who still would lose their star players to
the NBA Draft every year. March Madness would become that much more
exciting.
And, in most of the NCAA sports where there are no professional
leagues (such as gymnastics or cross country), where the pro league
isn’t that prestigious (soccer, softball), or the route to
the pro league is not through college (tennis, golf), the quality
of play would go way up.
Imagine how good Keira Goerl, Chris Peña, Tobias Clemens or
any of the players on the men’s golf team could’ve been
with one more year. It would’ve been fun to watch.
With graduation rates among Division I athletes as low as they
are, I really don’t see any downside to a fifth year of
eligibility, other than its breaking of tradition.
“I understand it will be controversial,” Brand told
the AP. “We’ll see how it turns out. But I believe the
main purpose is to increase graduation rates in men’s
basketball, which has had the most severe problem.”
The NCAA, despite the endorsement of Brand and the NABC, is very
unlikely to approve what would be very radical legislation. The
NCAA is an organization that routinely enforces rules that prevent
little, simple things: It keeps schools from helping a player
fly back home for a funeral (Maurice Clarett at Ohio State), or it
doesn’t allow a coach to pay for dinner while consoling a
player for the death of a loved one (Rick Majerus at Utah).
Hopefully the NCAA will do the right thing and approve the
proposal.
E-mail Quiñonez at gquinonez@media.ucla.edu.