College basketball clean-up set for April with recommendations

Cleaning up college basketball has a date. April 25.

That’s when a commission headed by former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will present recommendations to the NCAA Board of Governors and the Division I Board of Directors intended to address problems with the sport magnified by an FBI investigation into corruption.

Paying players isn’t an option, NCAA president Mark Emmert said, but working with the NBA and its players union to allow high school athletes to bypass college and begin their professional careers is something he’d like to see occur.

“That’s a choice that needs to be there,” Emmert said. “But people fully understand that when you go into a college environment you’re not going to do that to become an employee of the university. There is no interest in higher education of turning college athletes into employees that are hired and fired by universities.”

The rule popularly known as “one and done,” was established a dozen years ago by the NBA that requires players entering the league to be at least 19 years old. That often means at least one year of college for a basketball prospect, regardless of whether the person wants to attend college.

“We anticipate engagement with the NBA, the players’ association, conversations with AAU and other youth organizations as we begin to shape a path for college basketball,” said Dr. Eric Kaler, chair of the Division I Board of Directors and president of the University of Minnesota.

Adjusting or eliminating one-and-done is among expected recommendations from the committee. Changes that are recommended and approved are expected to take shape in time for the 2018-19 school year, said Emmert, who understood the skepticism when the committee was announced after the FBI charged four assistant coaches with various violations but centered around bribery.

“I recognize everybody says this sort of thing is typical behavior of big organizations, something goes wrong, you form a committee and nothing happens,” Emmert said. “(But) you don’t waste Condoleezza Rice’s time if you’re not serious about it."

This story was originally published March 29, 2018 at 6:43 PM with the headline "College basketball clean-up set for April with recommendations."