NCAA Seeks Complete Prohibition Of Testing NBA Draft Waters

The NCAA continues to tighten the screws on underclassmen who want to test the NBA Draft waters. Andy Katz reports that an NCAA committee on Thursday advanced a proposal that would move the NCAA’s deadline for basketball players to pull out of the NBA Draft to the day before the spring signing period begins. That date next year is April 10.

One problem: prospects can’t officially enter the NBA Draft until the last week of April. So basically, the NCAA is seeking to unilaterally abolish the practice of testing the draft waters.

The NCAA already moved the pull-out date from near the June draft to May 8 in order to, ahem, give NCAA coaches time to figure out their summer schedule and whatnot. That means that this year, prospects testing the waters have less than two weeks to get in contact with, meet and work out for NBA teams, and make a decision. It’s led a few NBA teams to organize a massive, on-the-fly workout the last weekend of April, as originally reported by DraftExpress.com.

Put pressuring these kids that much wasn’t enough, so the NCAA is trying to move the date up further, so kids will have a week between the end of the tournament and the college declaration deadline. Kids will have to make a declaration right then and there, without the opportunity to find out from the decision-makers who will determine their fate whether it’s a smart move. Basically, they can’t interview for a job in their chosen field without losing their eligibility. It stinks to high heavens.

This is why the NBA’s age minimum is such a crock: it forces kids -- kids -- into a system that treats them with utter disdain.