The Big Ten is considering a policy that forces freshmen to have a year of ineligibility, but all conferences would have to vote yes.
The Big Ten Conference (of 14 teams ) is making questionable headlines as they are considering a policy that would force mens basketball and football freshmen to sit out in their first year at the school for a “year of readiness” according to a report by the Maryland student publication, The Diamondback.
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Before you start smashing windows and lighting things on fire like I almost did, you should know that this (hopefully) isn’t likely, because all conference commissioners would have to vote yes on such a policy according to NCAA rules.
The Diamondback reported Thursday that the Big Ten is circulating a document titled “A Year of Readiness,” which explores making freshmen in football and men’s basketball ineligible for competition.
“If they do well because they spend more time, get more academic advising … their freshman year, they’re going to graduate,” Maryland president Wallace Loh told the newspaper. “And I think it’s worth spending an extra year of financial support to ensure that they graduate.”
But, this isn’t something that only the Big Ten is considering, horrifyingly.
Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby told CBSSports.com that there’s growing interest in the debate. And, Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott told CBSSports.com last week that he has discussed freshman ineligibility with several commissioners and that there will be “much more serious conversations about it in the coming months and year.”
This is quite the conversation, espiecally with men’s basketball, considering some of the NBA’s top prospects and stars only play one year and move on. Some of the greats include, Kevin Durant, Mike Conely Jr., Anthony Davis, Derrick Rose, Kevin Love, John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Eric Bledsoe, Kyrie Irving, Andre Drummond, Bradley Beal and Jabari Parker among others.
But, there’s also been some major busts from this rule that include Greg Oden, Daequan Cook, Byron Mullens and a plethora of other names you’ll no longer recognize.
Against a change in the policy includes Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith.
“One-and-done is a small percentage — it’s not even 1 percent of our student-athletes when you take all the schools,” Smith told ESPN.com. “That’s way off base to me. Do we have challenges with young people who aren’t really prepared the way they should be to attack college education? No doubt about it.
“I have not been a proponent of freshman ineligibility, but I keep my mind open that maybe it’s something we have to consider.”
In college football, players can’t leave until they have been out of high school for at least three years, so forcing an up-and-coming freshman to sit just doesn’t make sense.
Freshmen were ineligible to compete in all NCAA sports until 1972. While the trend is for eligibility requirements to increase, it just doesn’t seem pertinent while more and more kids that are either early in their high school careers or younger are starting to be recruited by schools. Talent is increasing, and we’re about to see more and more freshmen start leaving early in college basketball because they’re just ready to go. While there have been busts, there has been a lot of upside to letting basketball players leave after a year.
We’ll see if this movement starts to gain ground in the NCAA, but you can bet it won’t be for a while.
h/t The Diamondback