How G-League players can now play college basketball

On Monday, we saw G-League guard London Johnson commit to Louisville after playing professionally for three seasons. There’s been a clear shift in college basketball, with the NCAA easing its stance on professional players making the move to the college game.

In the past, any player that had played professionally would be ineligible from college. All players needed to be amateurs, meaning they hadn’t taken a salary or signed a pro contract.

But NIL and revenue sharing have changed all this. Once players could get paid, the line between “amateur” and “pro” blurred.

Most G-League players — outside of the Ignite program — are not earning big money, average of $40,000/year. The NCAA considers that low of a salary as covering “actual and necessary expenses,” like living costs, travel, housing, etc. Players who were making above the “necessary expenses” have to pay back the difference.

With that logic, the NCAA determined that G-League players aren’t truly professionals in the way the old rule defined it. Under the new approach, G-League players could be deemed eligible for college basketball of they’re still within five year of their high school graduation. The main factor that jeopardizes eligibility is if they’ve gone through the NBA Draft process or previously signed an NBA contract.

The NCAA is basically admitting that it’s impossible to keep defining who is a “pro” and who is a “amateur”. On top of that, players in college basketball are already being compensated through NIL/revenue sharing.

I would imagine we see more G-League players attempt to become eligible and make the jump to college basketball.