Are latest NCAA college basketball scandals tip of iceberg? Some possible solutions to eliminate such scandals!

How many more top NCAA D-1 Basketball players, coaches or teams will float from just below the water line of this big basketball ice berg scandal, that leaves many fans out in the cold?

This scandal so far as effected some top rated college schools, alphabetically, Alabama, Arizona, Auburn, Louisville, Oklahoma State and Southern California.

It may be like picking up rocks and finding additional insects under each rock picked up. It also could possibly, maybe be as contagious as the measles.

Having been involved with the game on the high school level for many years one way or another, it is no surprise to me that this type of bribing of top recruits and assistant coaches because as the BIBLE says “money is the root of all evil”. With all the big bucks involved in big time college basketball it was just a matter of time before the pressure to win would allow someone to finally “follow the money”.

The big question is how many more big time teams will this effect in the near future. The NCAA never has invested enough money into their investigative teams to question all ofthe ethical behavior of big time college basketball.

Remember, the unethical behavior, illegal activities scandals started back in the 40’s. It was about “the money” back then as it has been ever since then until right to today as some players were paid to shave points for the bookies. It wasn’t that much money back then compared to what is today, but money was the root of that original college basketball scandal.

The key now is what can the NCAA do now that this has been exposed to try to rein in this type of unethical, criminal, illegal and terrible role model behavior.

Some say the answer to this problem is to have an open free market as the solution and because the coaches, AD’s and the schools make millions of dollars and all the players can get legally is a free full ride of tuition, room and board.

Those thinkers want to let the free market determine the worth of each individual player on the recruiting market and pay them to sign with a school, that is just like paying the players to play for schools.

That would let the BIDDING begin. A big basketball auction where the best players go to the highest bidding team. They might have to go to an NCAA draft like the NBA draft to make it as fair as possible. Your draft position would be from the bottom to the top for the 351 teams finishing ranking the previous year and no trading drafts.

D-1 basketball should not be another farm league for the NBA, they have a farm league now in the D league (now the G league). If these young talented high school or prep school prospects are that good they can go directly to the G league. Currently most of these freshmen are just one and done wonders after their freshmen year in college and then they go Pro.

That would be just “the rich getting richer” and “the poor getting poorer”. These top freshmen recruits WHO ARE THERE FOR JUST THEIR FRESHMEN YEAR are going to get their money when they enter the NBA draft after their freshmen year so they will reap the worth of their talent in a little over a year. These players need to develop a little time and patience.

Also, if they don’t happen to get drafted to the NBA and do not go to the developmental NBA G league, they still can develop their game in the international foreign professional leagues that are all over the world. Approximately 20% of the players in the NBA last year were international players, so it is very possible for American born talent to play internationally and then make an NBA roster after a year or two of development and after turning 19.

Many of these options could be eliminated if the NBA would eliminate it’s minimum age rule for players signing up for the NBA draft (rule must be AGE 19 the year of the draft before or after). It shouldn’t be the age it should be that the players have graduated from high school.

Here are some possible solutions that might help eliminate the type of scandals in today’s college D-1 game. It really would be to try to even up the recruiting for all of the 351 men’s D-1 teams.

1. the scholarships for individual players, room, board, tuition and stipend stay the same as currently
2. Reduce the number of full scholarship players from 8 per team 13-8=5, 5 X 351=1755. This would reduce the full scholarships from 4,563 (351 teams X 13) to 2,808 (351 teams X 8). This would put more premium on the full scholarships for each school, thus leaving less full scholarships available for the more talented players available as schools compete for the top players with 5 less full scholarships. Less skilled players would have to decide do I want a full scholarship at a lesser school or do I want a half scholarship at higher ranked team. Higher ranked teams would also have to decide who they want to give the full scholarships available to, thus leaving more talented players available to be spread around all of the total 351 teams.
3. Reduce the pressure to win on coaches by giving the coaches 5 year contracts with buyouts of the coaches salaries if the coach does not go the full 5 years because they are fired
4. Have the coaches salaries on a set scale based on years of head coaching experience so all the schools are on an even playing field for providing salaries, like high school teachers
5. Go back to the old rule that freshmen are not eligible to play on varsity teams, but can practice with the varsity and or play on college a freshmen or college JV team. This would separate the student/athlete of either going to college for their basketball futures only or for an education first
5. Players can go to prep school on scholarships
6. Players can go the JUCO route on scholarships
7. Have all 32 conferences have end of season conference tournaments. Then have winner of regular conference season go to the “Big Dance” along with the winner of the conference tourney if it is not the regular season winner. If a team wins both then the conference only sends one team regardless of the ranking of the conference.
8. MOST IMPORTANT SOLUTION: Have NBA eliminate the minimum age for high school graduates and have the rule the players must have graduated from high school would eliminate a lot of the problems.

Any other possible suggestions for positive solutions?

Also, as these investigations continue in college basketball how long will it be before big time college football is investigated for the same problems of the scandals that college basketball has? Again, “just follow the money” as they have much more many recruits as football has much larger team rosters and many teams have 11 offensive and 11 defensive players.