The NCAA and the colleges claim that their goal is to educate student-athletes, but this is a clear example of how the NCAA too often keeps players uneducated and financially undervalued in order to increase revenues.
After heavy lobbying from coaches, the NCAA adopted a rule that unnecessarily increases the likelihood that players entering the NBA draft will lose their NCAA eligibility and be left undrafted. The new rule effectively eliminates the opportunity for basketball players to make an informed decision when deciding whether or not to enter the NBA draft.
Beginning next year, the process that allows basketball players to keep their NCAA eligibility while communicating with and working out for NBA teams before making a decision will not be available. The NCAA and coaches are now bullying players into making the decision before NBA teams begin to evaluate potential draft picks.
Coaches claim they simply want to know who they need to replace before the second basketball signing date in mid-April. However, coaches could have asked the NCAA to simply push the second signing period back until after players had adequate time to make a decision. Coaches would have been just as informed and could build their rosters accordingly. Instead, coaches and the NCAA chose to create unnecessary risks for basketball players. Basketball players must now make an uninformed decision with their NCAA eligibility on the line. This could result in fewer basketball players declaring for the draft, which is real reason why the NCAA and coaches adopted this rule.
The NCAA's goal is to monopolize the talents of "amateur" athletes for as long as possible so that they can maximize revenues for as long as possible. If fewer players enter the NBA draft out of fear of the unknown, basketball TV ratings and ticket sales will increase as fans seek to watch the biggest names in college basketball compete. In addition, coaches' salaries will increase along with the revenues.
The NCAA and the colleges claim that their goal is to educate student-athletes, but this is a clear example of how the NCAA too often keeps players uneducated and financially undervalued in order to increase revenues.