NCAA basketball panel opposes ‘one and done’

With college basketball reeling from scandal, an independent NCAA task force has called for widespread reform of a game that has become a multibillion-dollar business fraught with bribery and fraud.

The Commission on College Basketball focused much of its report on ending the “one and done” situation that has top players reluctantly enrolling in school for a season before jumping to the pros.

The 52-page document also suggests potential lifetime bans for coaches who cheat, and a shift in the complex relationship with elite youth basketball and the shoe and apparel companies that pump hundreds of millions of dollars into the sport.

“The state of men’s college basketball is deeply troubled,” said the report, released Wednesday. “The Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice explains the reform suggestions of the NCAA basketball panel she led. Critics wonder whether the report went far enough. levels of corruption and deception are now at a point that they threaten the very survival of the college game as we know it.”

Within hours of receiving the recommendations, NCAA leaders vowed to prepare legislation for a vote this summer, saying, “We all will work together to get it right.”

But critics wonder whether the report went far enough. They see a troubling inequity when comparing the value of scholarships with the players’ true market value.

“The fundamental problem is the players make more money for the schools than they receive in compensation,” said David Berri, a sports economist at Southern Utah University. “As long as that exists, you’re always going to have corruption.”

The NCAA formed its 12-member panel last fall after federal prosecutors charged 10 people — including four assistant coaches — in response to allegations of bribes and kickbacks meant to steer recruits to specific schools, agents and shoe companies.

Southern California, Arizona, Auburn and Oklahoma State have been ensnared in the wide-ranging FBI investigation. At Louisville, coach Rick Pitino lost his job amid allegations that the program helped shoe company Adidas with a plan to funnel $100,000 to the family of a prized recruit.

These developments added to the sport’s long history of underthe-table payments and point-shaving. As the commission wrote, “The environment surrounding college basketball is a toxic mix of perverse incentives to cheat.”

Condoleezza Rice, the former secretary of state, was the chairwoman of the panel, which included university administrators, retired coaches and former basketball stars Grant Hill and David Robinson.

There had been speculation that the members might recommend more stringent reforms, such as borrowing a rule from college baseball that forces players who accept scholarships to remain in school for at least three years. There was also talk of opening the door for studentathletes to market their names, images and likenesses.

“There should be an opportunity for the kids to make money through a legitimate process,” said Jim Lackritz, an emeritus sports business professor at San Diego State. “When the school is making all this money off players, why can’t we create a win-win situation where the kids can make some extra money, too?”

After much discussion, Rice and her colleagues decided not to back the baseball option or any mechanisms for athletes to generate outside income, but they said that such issues could be revisited.

For now, the panel is asking the NBA and its players union to eliminate a 2006 rule that excludes young players from the pro draft until they turn 19 and are a year removed from high school graduation. It remains unclear whether the NBA and its players will alter the eligibility rules.

“There’s only going to be, on an annual basis, four to eight kids who are good enough to go straight to the NBA,” Lackritz said. “It’s really a very small piece of the puzzle.”

The commission suggested more leeway for young athletes to test the professional waters. The report proposed that high school players be allowed to consult with accredited agents to assess their future. After players move on to college, they should be permitted to enter the NBA draft but return to school if no team selects them.

The panel also called for stiffer penalties that, in instances of major violations, would ban teams from postseason play — and from the revenue-sharing that comes with the lucrative NCAA tournament — for five years. Coaches who break the rules would face potential lifetime bans.