Comments on: NCAA wants to do away with testing NBA draft waters

By: flapjack3285

flapjack3285 — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 21:46:12 +0000

Anyone can talk to an agent all day long. As soon as you agree to representation or they start negotiating on your behlaf, you are done. What happened in the Paxton case, is that the NCAA said his advisor had direct contact with the BlueJays in the negotiation, which is not allowed.

http://www.ncaa.org/wps/wcm/connect/public/NCAA/Resources/Latest+News/2010+news+stories/July+latest+news/Overview+of+NCAA+bylaws+governing+athlete+agents

Even though he did get a nice signing bonus, Paxton did take a tremendous risk. There have been several players who have gone to play independant baseball who plummet in the next draft or get injured and never make it to the majors (an even higher risk since he’s a pitcher).

Basketball and football players that don’t want to deal with the NCAA can go play in the ABA or UFL. That being said, if they get rid of the early entry option, there definitely needs to be something else in place that would help these players out in making their decisions.

By: rdssc

rdssc — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 18:51:29 +0000

I don’t know the specifics but at the end of the day it seemed to work out just fine for Paxton he was more than compensated for the time missed. I know very little about college baseball but I am pretty sure agents are allowed to talk to baseball players while the players are in college.
Basketball and football players are thrown to the wolves if they are caught talking to an agent. It is just part of the backwards way of doing business for the NCAA.

Removing the ability for players to visit teams and get a real understanding of where they will be drafted is just another backwards thinking move.

Paxton wound up receiving a $942,500 signing bonus from the Mariners, according to Baseball America — more than the estimated $800,000 the M’s gave to their top pick in the same draft, pitcher Taijuan Walker (No. 43 overall). As Baseball America pointed out, Paxton’s bonus is more than four times MLB’s recommended amount of $209,700 for the 132nd overall pick — an indication of how highly the Mariners regard his potential.

By: flapjack3285

flapjack3285 — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 16:27:17 +0000

Ask James Paxton how that worked out for him. And don’t act like basketball players aren’t communicating with agents.

By: pdub923

pdub923 — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 16:21:41 +0000

Hostage? Really? They are kids and they know it’s about business and not academics. They have all been bribed by everyone they’ve ever met since they were in the 7th grade and now they are trying to make it to the next level. They have been brought up in such a confusing environment, having academic people tell them it’s about their education while coaches and administrators give them cars, houses, and passing report cards that say otherwise, I think they need more time to make the right decision for themselves and their families in regards to where they “take their talents”.

By: rdssc

rdssc — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 16:17:56 +0000

All the while baseball players get to talk to agents all day every day of their college career because agents are called advisers in the baseball world. College sports is and will always be the most corrupt business in America until the NCAA rewrites the rule book according to today’s world not the 1950s.

By: pdub923

pdub923 — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 16:12:08 +0000

Bias toward what? Doing the right thing? Helping students and not being greedy a**holes? Which college do you work for?

By: gogators44

gogators44 — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 16:05:41 +0000

Who cares! In college football, a student-athlete has only 1 week after the season ends to decide whether to turn pro or not; usually they will have completed three years of college before potentially leaving their college. These basketball ‘student’ athletes were having it too good in recent years – having almost 3 months (June) after the college basketball season ends to decide on whether to enter the draft or not while holding their college team, coach, etc. hostage to their choice. These freshmen/sophmores who were exploring their pro-potential were making a mockery of the pursuit of a college education – i.e, not satisfactorily completing their coursework during the basketball season. If you think that you are this hot-shot athlete that’s ready to be a first-rounder then leave early for the NBA draft or go play in another country and stop wasting everyone else’s time. These players can gather their information in the off-season and decide a year later (like their football counter-parts) on whether to turn pro or not. The ‘real’ student athlete will stay 3-4 years and improve upon his knowledge while pursuing his sport.

Basketball recruiting is very tough; relationships between a player/family/coach have to be established over a long period of time (often years) before a given player commits to the school/coach. A coach has the necessary time to find whatever player(s) he needs in the early fall before the basketball season starts. Very few remaining athletes are available in the late signing period – most have already chosen their destinations. Signing the right type of player during this time is almost impossible without establishing a previous relationship. Often times when a student-athlete unexpectedly leaves early, that team is short-handed (personal wise) in the next season and does not perform up to their potential!

By: dankyb

dankyb — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 15:47:39 +0000

This is one of the most bias articles I have ever read. Why don’t you try some objectivity for once?

By: flapjack3285

flapjack3285 — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 15:31:17 +0000

You’re off on the NFL draft details. Players must enter their name into the draft sometime in January and then have 72 hours to decide if they want to stay in the draft. Pro days and the combine are not held until February, so they don’t get to interact with the drafting teams until then.

However, there is an advisory board made up of scouts, GMs, etc that will tell a player where he can expected to get drafted. There have been some misses in the past, but they seem to do a pretty good job.

By: LPad

LPad — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 14:59:44 +0000

And yet there are college job fairs held at least once a semester that let regular students (the ones that don’t earn the colleges millions upon millions of dollars) interact with potential employers, learn what the employers are looking for and where each student stands with their current qualifications/skill set.
So essentially regular students can interact with future employers anytime they want, schools hold pro days every year so that NFL personnel and scouts can interact with the best players at a particular school all day (heck, some of coaches will run a player through individual workouts after the general workout)

But basketball student athletes get one day to interact with the NBA and given that all the basketball players thinking of going pro that year will be there it will be a five to ten minute session. Yeah that’s totally fair.