College basketball is a joke. I know the NBA has the rule a player can’t go pro until he is one year removed from high school, but this rule is causing college athletic programs to inadvertently commit myriad NCAA violations. An example is O.J. Mayo, formerly of the University of Southern California. He didn’t want to be in school and him being there caused USC to commit a violation. If Mayo had been permitted to go pro out of high school, it would’ve saved both him and USC a ton of issues.
I think players should have at least an Associate’s Degree to be in the NBA. It gives them options. What if a player suffers a catastrophic injury a month or so into his career and can no longer play at all? An educated person has a safety net to fall in. The argument to this would be he can go to college after his career ends. My rebuttal would be can he physically be able to do the career he subsequently wants to do? He might not be able to move about freely. Some people, even athletes, are loners. They are too prideful to take other’s help. Most importantly, education is not cheap, not even at community colleges. So if one is offered a scholarship to any school, he needs to accept it. If a player is offered Duke and UC Riverside, for example, he can then turn down one of those two. But he needs to accept one and stay until he at least gets his A.A. Degree.
The responsibility lies with the player and the university to get these student-athletes educated to at least have a safety net to fall back in if necessary.