Why is this allowed? Are they just letting anything go in the era of NIL when it comes to recruits?
UVA's 22 year old freshman ex-PROFESSIONAL player
- Thread starter bringbacktherantboard
- Start date
I feel like in time some of the stuff has to be sorted out but for now things are changing at break neck speed and some teams are pushing the envelope. Or maybe it the lack of the envelope
Didn’t Jean-Marc Melchior play pro ball way back when before he was a ‘Cat? I feel like this isn’t new.
I believe previously you could have played with a professional team before coming to NCAA but had to prove you were only paid “necessary” expenses like housing/food and not a salary above that. That’s why some low-level European pros could come over here with eligibility.
It’s such a damn joke. The NCAA should show backbone but they’re so scared if they don’t let these schools do it that they’ll break away. College sports doesn’t have the appeal it used to even if I still do love it.
Let's say Joe plays two years for the University of Florida and is paid $200,000.
Then we have Luis, same age as Joe, plays professionally in Spain for two years and makes $200,000.
Let's say we want to recruit one of these two players to Northwestern for their remaining eligibility. Both earned money playing basketball for the past two years. Why would the NCAA treat them differently?
Does Joe get to be a 22-year-old freshman with all the eligibility that entails?
Usually, people go to school to be students and then become professionals upon graduation.
It's hard to separate the two with NIL.
It's the AGE which is where you might be able to make some logical inroads.
4 years if you start college at 20 or under on Sept 1 of the school year
3 years if you start college at 21 on Sept 1 of the school year
2 years if you start college at 22 on Sept 1 of school year
1 year if you start college at 23 on Sept 1 of school year
You have no eligibility if you are 24 on Sept 1 of school year.
Poor Chris Weinke.
NIL payments are officially for name, image, and likeness endorsements and are not paid directly by the school. You don't have to be an NCAA athlete to earn NIL payments.
The NCAA settlement would allow schools to directly pay players out of that $20 million allotment. So, I would propose that anybody who receives direct compensation to play a sport, whether their employer is a school or a professional sports team, loses a year of college eligibility for every year that they are directly compensated for that sport.
It is still desirable, IMO, for NCAA athletics to provide opportunities for students to earn an education, and I don't think it's desirable to have college-aged would-be students crowded out of these opportunities by professional mercenaries.
I think we’re within 10 years of players not having to be students. They can choose to go to school but that will not be a requirement and instead they will be employees of the university.
What's the point of schools fielding teams, at that point? If they aren't providing opportunities for students, why should the system survive?
I think that should be the central question - although I know it won't be. The current Bball one-and-dones at Duke etc. only do school as long as the season lasts and obviously have absolutely no intention of graduating, or in many cases learning much of anything. I have scholar friends from other parts of the world who have taught at our universities who think our big time college athletics with all of this $ are simply bizarre.
The one-and-done rule is, in part, because the NBA changed their draft rules in 2005 so that players must be one year removed from high school. I would've liked the NCAA to have taken the NBA to court over it as a discriminatory practice that has detrimental downstream effects on the competitiveness of the college game. Of course, the Dooks of the world don't want the practice to end, so the NCAA has been happy to let the practice continue.
I just think if you’re 24 before some date around the start of the season - like Aug 15 for football or Nov 1 for basketball - you’re just done. No exceptions. Keep all the other rules as is and add that. Deals with the JUCO stuff and the euro pro stuff. This is a U24 endeavor. Strong precedence for leagues with those rules, seems like it would hold legal muster.
Works for me. I'm also most certainly not a lawyer. Nor do I play one on TV. Nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn last night.
It just strikes me as something with a long legal basis given many other sports leagues and activities with age limits
The one and dones at Duke really don’t have many choices. If the NBA had the “old rules” these guys would enter the draft out of HS, get picked, and the issue would be mostly resolved. Choosing Duke over the G league makes a ton of sense for these guys, better exposure, better money with Duke. I don’t think many make a pretense that they are at Duke for a degree. The career path is defined in HS. They are essentially professional athletes that don’t care much about ECON 101. It may annoy some fans, but it makes sense or the player and the school.
I still think the baseball model is the solution. You can forego college eligibility by entering the draft out of high school, or you can choose to go to college and not be eligible for the draft for three years.
But you would need the NBA and probably the NBAPA to go along with that. The NCAA couldn’t do it alone.
But you would need the NBA and probably the NBAPA to go along with that. The NCAA couldn’t do it alone.
Article from about this from last week -
boardroom.tv
New NIL and revenue-sharing rules in college basketball are luring top young pros from elite overseas clubs to U.S. campuses with more money, playing time, and NBA exposure. The University of Virginia‘s men’s basketball team hasn’t won an NCAA Tournament game since it won the national championship in the 2018-19 season. After a bridge year under interim coach Ron Sanchez following longtime head coach Tony Bennett‘s retirement last year, the Cavaliers hired Ryan Odom from VCU in March. And in his first year as a head coach in a major conference, Odom recruited a pair of European players with significant top-league experience.
After four games, Belgian forward Thijs De Ridder leads the team in scoring after playing two years with Bilbao Basket in Spain’s top Liga ACB, while German center Johann Grunloh leads the Cavs in rebounds and blocks after playing in Germany’s top league a season ago. The 20-year-old Grunloh is currently ranked 65th on ESPN’s 2026 NBA Draft board.
SNIP
European prospects can be found up and down ESPN’s draft board as the basketball globe has dramatically shrunk. Instead of playing against 30-year-olds in the EuroLeague for a paltry salary, Italian guard Dame Sarr left FC Barcelona for Duke and its one-and-done draft factory. Washington big man Hannes Steinbach exited the German Bundesliga to play the lead role for the Huskies after starring for his national team in the finals of the U-19 World Cup. Last year, BYU recruited Russian guard Egor Dëmin from Real Madrid, and he was drafted eighth overall in June by the Brooklyn Nets. Twin Croatian big men Tomislav and Zvonimir Ivišiċ played for years at Montenegrin club SC Derby in the Adriatic League before departing for Illinois, where Tomislav is now a legit NBA draft prospect. The Illini under head coach Brad Underwood have developed a strong European pipeline, with Lithuanian point guard Kasparis Jakučionis having been drafted to the Miami Heat this past June and Montenegrin big man David Mirkovic joining Tomislav in this year’s starting five. Now, roughly a quarter of the NBA is from outside the U.S., making the NBA dream seem more attainable than ever for international prospects.
“NIL has opened up the floodgates,” ESPN college basketball analyst Fran Fraschilla told Boardroom, “because when you pay a kid $750,000 to come to college from Belgrade, it’s probably the most money in some cases these kids will make in their entire lives. It’s like the gold rush of the 1840s and 50s to California. Agents who would never, ever send their kids to the NCAA are now making more money at Illinois and Virginia than they ever would at a team like Cedevita in Croatia.”
Inside College Basketball's European Takeover - Boardroom
New NIL and revenue-sharing rules in college basketball are luring top young pros from overseas to U.S. campuses with more money, NBA exposure.
boardroom.tv
New NIL and revenue-sharing rules in college basketball are luring top young pros from elite overseas clubs to U.S. campuses with more money, playing time, and NBA exposure. The University of Virginia‘s men’s basketball team hasn’t won an NCAA Tournament game since it won the national championship in the 2018-19 season. After a bridge year under interim coach Ron Sanchez following longtime head coach Tony Bennett‘s retirement last year, the Cavaliers hired Ryan Odom from VCU in March. And in his first year as a head coach in a major conference, Odom recruited a pair of European players with significant top-league experience.
After four games, Belgian forward Thijs De Ridder leads the team in scoring after playing two years with Bilbao Basket in Spain’s top Liga ACB, while German center Johann Grunloh leads the Cavs in rebounds and blocks after playing in Germany’s top league a season ago. The 20-year-old Grunloh is currently ranked 65th on ESPN’s 2026 NBA Draft board.
SNIP
European prospects can be found up and down ESPN’s draft board as the basketball globe has dramatically shrunk. Instead of playing against 30-year-olds in the EuroLeague for a paltry salary, Italian guard Dame Sarr left FC Barcelona for Duke and its one-and-done draft factory. Washington big man Hannes Steinbach exited the German Bundesliga to play the lead role for the Huskies after starring for his national team in the finals of the U-19 World Cup. Last year, BYU recruited Russian guard Egor Dëmin from Real Madrid, and he was drafted eighth overall in June by the Brooklyn Nets. Twin Croatian big men Tomislav and Zvonimir Ivišiċ played for years at Montenegrin club SC Derby in the Adriatic League before departing for Illinois, where Tomislav is now a legit NBA draft prospect. The Illini under head coach Brad Underwood have developed a strong European pipeline, with Lithuanian point guard Kasparis Jakučionis having been drafted to the Miami Heat this past June and Montenegrin big man David Mirkovic joining Tomislav in this year’s starting five. Now, roughly a quarter of the NBA is from outside the U.S., making the NBA dream seem more attainable than ever for international prospects.
“NIL has opened up the floodgates,” ESPN college basketball analyst Fran Fraschilla told Boardroom, “because when you pay a kid $750,000 to come to college from Belgrade, it’s probably the most money in some cases these kids will make in their entire lives. It’s like the gold rush of the 1840s and 50s to California. Agents who would never, ever send their kids to the NCAA are now making more money at Illinois and Virginia than they ever would at a team like Cedevita in Croatia.”