Jim Delaney's Answer to Pay for Play: Let players bypass college

Sorry, this was terrible math and assumes everyone is cheating. I don't know what I was thinking here.

 

The thing about the NBDL...

1) Basketball is America's 5th most popular sport. Significantly less popular on the whole (8% total marketshare, college and pro) compared to football (45%).

2) The NBDL is young. Nothing is going to be a smash hit instantly. It will take time, just as any football enterprise would.

3) A few articles peg NBDL salaries around the 15-20K range. That's not really enough to justify leaving college for most (I sure wouldn't). Euroball is significantly more (60-70K), but there's other factors involved there that I think discourage kids from going, not to mention the lack of recruiting done stateside by international clubs.

 

I'm still very much against paying players for any marketing reasons, but I'm against minimum number of years to qualify for the NFL draft for the very same reason. If a student becomes a marketable name in his first season, he should be allowed to start making money from that name by moving on to professional sports after that season ends. No obligation to a minimum number of years. If Tim Tebow wants to fleece student athletes for 4 years, that's fine. You're not going to convince me that he deserved a cut of the profits from jersey sales Florida made during his years there.

Manziel should have been able to make the jump last season if he wanted to, but there's no way I'd support student-athlete compensation beyond education opportunity, room, board, and national exposure. However, I do feel like the education, room, & board should be available at ANY time. I.E., jump to the pro's doesn't work out, can go back and finish school without fee's.

 

^^On the basketball front, they should ABSOLUTELY be able to bypass college for the NBA. The 1 year minimum is a joke. Should also be allowed to go back to school if you aren't drafted.

 

It seems utterly insane IMO that an 18 yo man can't skip college and play pro football or basketball, but I guess if Hooters can get away with only hiring young hot girls then the NFL and NBA can restrict young players.