STAYING POWER
NCAA should relax rules about NBA, NFL Draft
The Oakland Athletics selected Kyler Murray ninth overall in the baseball draft last week and quickly offered Murray the contract of his dreams. Almost $5 million and permission to not report until January, so that Murray could chase his college football dream and quarterback the Sooners.
Murray accepted the offer. He could have said no. The bonus money is regulated by baseball’s labor agreement. But Murray could have said that on second thought, two years of college quarterbacking sounds good, or that Oakland isn’t much of a place to play baseball. Murray could have rejected the A’s and returned to campus with football and baseball eligibility.
OU’s Trae Young has no such option after the NBA Draft next week. And Orlando Brown had no such option after the NFL Draft in April.
The next time you hear the NCAA trot out the propaganda that athletes come first, remember the rules concerning eligibility. If a football or basketball player keeps his name in the draft, he’s ineligible to return to NCAA competition.
The reason is clear. It makes things easier on the university. Coaches can set their rosters. Scholarships can be allotted. Heck, that’s why baseball has the relatively
new draft rule that players must sign by July 6, to give coaches a chance at organizing their team and finances. In the old days, some players wouldn’t sign until the first day of school, maximizing their bargaining power. Baseball took pity on its pipeline and gave schools a little relief.
So I get why football and basketball players are banished past a certain pre-draft deadline. I just don’t agree with it.
The NCAA’s mission should be to keep as many athletes in school as possible. The NCAA should encourage athletes to get as close to graduation as possible. Instead, the NCAA pushes away athletes.
In late April, the NBA announced that 181 college players had filed for the draft despite eligibility remaining. A month later, the deadline to stay in the draft arrived, and 126 chose to do so.
Do the math. Thirty teams. Two rounds. That’s 60 picks total for all the international players and a few relevant college seniors and for the early entry players. How many of the latter will get selected? Forty or so? About a third of those on the list. Sure, some early entrants are tired of college or had no interest being there in the first place. They’re ready to start drawing a paycheck, be it the NBA, G-League or overseas.
But not all of them. Some might have an interest in staying in school. Perhaps they had an inflated opinion of their status. Perhaps they got pressure from people at home. Whatever the case, why shouldn’t the NCAA strive to keep those players in school? And it might be even more important in the NFL, where players make financial mistakes by going into the draft too early. Thirty-seven players with college eligibility remaining went undrafted. But even some of the drafted players are harmed.
Brown, for example, tested horribly at the NFL Combine and slid all the way to the third round before he was picked by the Baltimore Ravens. Some thought the OU offensive tackle might go in the first round.
The difference between first-round and thirdround money is huge. Players
picked in the middle of the first round typically get about $10 million over four years, with about 70 percent guaranteed. Players picked in the middle of the third round typically get about $3.3 million, with less than 30 percent guaranteed. That’s the difference between $7 million and $750,00. Big, big difference. Brown left OU with a year of eligibility remaining. Under baseball draft rules, he could have returned to the Sooners and tried to build back that draft stock. Under football draft rules, he’s stuck with that third-round designation.
Young won’t suffer that kind of fate in the NBA Draft. He’s virtually guaranteed to be a lottery pick (top 14), so he’s set. But what about the 90something guys who will go undrafted?
Of course, allowing players to return to college after the draft would make the NBA and NFL less itchy to draft them. And isn’t that a good thing?
I mean, obvious super prospects won’t be affected. The DeAndre Ayton/Marvin Bagley III/ Mohamed Bama crowd. The Saquon Barkley/Sam Darnold/Minkah Fitzpatrick crowd. The professional franchises still will clamor for that kind of talent. But they will be less inclined to take a flier on someone with options after the draft. And that’s good. That keeps more athletes on the lifeboat.
I suppose it’s possible that the NBA and/or the NFL would counter with draconian measures that would require players to declare their commitment. Perhaps forcing them to sign with agents before they are draft-eligible. But maybe not. Baseball has shown that it is willing to work with the NCAA, which supplies all three sports with fabulous developmental programs.
College basketball and particularly college football are invaluable to the leagues. No way does the NBA or NFL want to alienate their toll-free developmental grounds.
So the NCAA has little reason, other than convenience, not to cut the athletes a break and give them a chance to stay in college longer.
Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at (405) 760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman. com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM-98.1. You can also view his personality page at newsok. com/berrytramel.