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Since Kevin Garnett, it has been common for high school players to jump to NBA or go to Kentucky and be one and done.
Football players don't have that luxury because NFL requires 2 years of college football and minimum age is 20. Maurice Clarett found out the hard way.
Considering how unpopular the NBA is now, it might be smart for them to create a similar route- keep them in college for 3 years, allow them to generate an NCAAB fan base which they can bring to the NBA.
That would be one way to bring more fans, however, the basketball players only have to play one year in college to make the jump. Perhaps if the NBA limits entrance to 4-year degree holders it would work.
that would be hilarious if NBA players who didn't graduate from college imposed a 4 year degree requirement to enter the league
Why hilarious? This is the kind of thing that makes monopolies great again!! The NBA players seem to be quite street smart.
WNBA is running this playbook right now with success... WNCAAB is surprisingly popular and many are able to make much more money in college now due to NIL. 1 year in college is not enough time to make an impact- let them develop skills for 3 years and create a loyal college fanbase that will follow them to the NBA.
The NBA needs to do something to increase the funnel for new fans, especially when games are all gate-kept and harder to access. Tiktok generation ain't got the attention span for 80 boring games.
You can see what this Caitlin Clark is doing for the WNBA. She is bringing a lot of new interest and former fans to the game. Unfortunately, all of her fans are rabid racists and should not be allowed to watch the games ‘cuz reasons. When will people quit this kind of attitude? Especially when they can earn more rewards for abandoning it.
Like 2% of her fans are racist that are loud and co-opt her cause for social media points. Vast majority are just CC fans because she’s so fun to watch.
the 2 games are different
People who love college don't watch pro and vice versa, same with football
People are watching Caitlin Clark, they don't care about the other players
Since I am not a big fan of basketball, at all, I am not sure of what you are claiming. I can see that some people may be only following the one player whether pro or college, from the controversy they have aroused. I have noticed that college and pro games are vastly different and have come to the conclusion that college sports are finishing schools for the pros.
I followed CC since her insane march madness runs- as a result I now know the names of quite a few wnba players I never cared about before. I also never cared about NFL until Stanford players I cared about (Luck, Sherman, Ertz, CMC, etc) started to get some real traction. There are many ways for people to get hooked onto different sports and they stay for different reasons but you need something to get them into the funnel.
There are some rules to follow, aren’t there? I think putting high school graduates up against some of the monstrously big pros would be a slaughter in football. I guess in basketball they need less finishing to jump to the pros.
minimum age 20 or 21 for both basketball and football, with or without college attendance
Well, it is better to have adults rather than infants playing those sports. Infants are unable to contract, they are not responsible for themselves.
The knock on effects may be the hard ones to handle, especially in the subsidized sports. Football and basketball subsidize a lot of other sports and will not do so now.
edit: Good point, I remember Billy Packer opposed paying athletes because other sports depend on basketball and football money. I vehemently disagreed. Billy Packer was my favorite college basketball analyst especially during March Madness but he should stay in his lane, the free throw lane, dead or alive.
Does NCAA have to support 99 sports or whatever the number is?
Alumni and Development office at a university exists to call alumni for donations. Get to work and start dialing for dollars.
Yes, that works well. They don’t have to support the ones like speed basket-weaving and snail racing. I guess we will never see curling in the colleges again!
It has certainly changed college sports. I think we have to wait some more years to determine what the lasting effects will be.
One positive is it does encourage some players to stay in school and finish their degrees rather than feeling they need to leave to get drafted by the pros. Of course the top players will still opt to go to the draft but some of the later round players are incentivized to stay in school, finish their degrees and get paid to play.