The age limit to the NBA draft was passed last year in the new collective bargaining agreement making it impossible for a HS player to jump straight to the NBA. A player now has to be 19 before he can declare himself for the draft. There was an article in the Salt Lake Tribune about it today.

http://www.sltrib.com/sports/ci_3975090

Greg Oden was a player that would have been a lottery pick, possibly a number one pick, but due to the new NBA rules he will have to play in college for one year. So he went to Ohio State to play and will likely enter the draft next year.

Here is my question. Is this good or bad for WAC (or other conferences that are not high majors?)

There are two sides to this I guess. Looking at this with purely objective reasoning MOST of the time WAC schools are not in the running for the best HS players. Case in point was that Kevin Garnett was thinking about attending Michigan if he would have gone to college, Kobe Bryant said he would have gone to Duke, etc. etc. Players that are talented enough to jump straight from HS to the Pros are nor usually on the radar screen of a WAC program.

John Saunders of ABC once said that it was better for college basketball that LeBron James didn't go to college. He said realistically only North Carolina, UCLA, or Kansas type programs would have had a shot at him and the talent gap between the elite programs and the rest would have been even more pronouced.

However, on the flip side, if players that would have just gone pro now have to go to college, it could help. The first way it could help is that players like Greg Oden will likely enter the draft after just one year. That means that a major school will have to sign another player (likely a HS senior) again. Players that are good, but maybe not quite talented enough to play in the pros after HS, could stay 3-4 years at a WAC school. The added experience would count I guess.

The second way is that talented players may consider a WAC school over an elite program. One fairly applicable example is Brayden Bell, who just transferred from Ohio State to USU. No one knows for certain why he transferred, but Greg Oden signing at his position may have influenced his decision.

So, in short will the 19 year old age limit this increase the talent gap between elite programs and everyone else, or will it spread the talent more evenly because players will look to other schools like Bell coming to USU may have? (ie some good recruits will not sign at a major program when a very talented HS player is signed.)

I actually think it will be good college basketball in general. More talent = More teams spreading the wealth. Better quality of play, etc.

There was never any problems with Cinderellas in the old days when pretty much anyone went to college. In fact, you could argue that there were more of them.

Look at college baseball--that's a sport where all the good players are drafted out of high school. It's pretty much decimated the sport at the collegiate ranks...granted, it's the other extreme, but still, I don't want that to happen to basketball and hope the NBA never starts a developmental league or anything like that.

WAC_FAN Wrote:I actually think it will be good college basketball in general. More talent = More teams spreading the wealth. Better quality of play, etc.

There was never any problems with Cinderellas in the old days when pretty much anyone went to college. In fact, you could argue that there were more of them.

Look at college baseball--that's a sport where all the good players are drafted out of high school. It's pretty much decimated the sport at the collegiate ranks...granted, it's the other extreme, but still, I don't want that to happen to basketball and hope the NBA never starts a developmental league or anything like that.

I see your point and I do think that it holds merit. However the NFL requires that a player be out of HS for 3 years before they can enter the draft. I know that there are other reasons besides simply players for this, but there are very, very few Cinderellas in college football. The top programs are able to get the major players and it has created a huge disparity between the elite programs (ie USC, Ohio State, Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, Florida State, etc.) and the rest. There aren't as many upsets in college football.

I know this is not a completely accurate comparison due to college football's nature of selecting a champ, the BCS, and the fact that there are only 12-13 games per year, but it does give me something to think about. I think that if LeBron James had gone to college he may have dominated the competition in the NCAA and it may have increased the disparities between the elite programs and everyone else.

I guess we will see the results in a few years.