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NCAA rules-makers are missing the big picture
By Mike DeCourcy - The Sporting News

Now that the NCAA's "working group" on basketball issues is done working over the game, it seems only fair to congratulate the committee members for getting one right.

Their idea to tie scholarship levels to graduation rates is splendid. Programs graduating 75 percent of their players will receive one more than the current limit of 13. Those graduating 33 percent or less will get one fewer.

Other than the grad rates themselves, which are dubious statistics even if players who leave a program in good academic standing will not count against a school, there are no obvious negatives here. This is more incentive than punishment, which is all but unprecedented in the NCAA rulebook.

If it seems that conceiving just one solid piece of legislation was not a sound use of the thousands of dollars it cost to run this committee, that's because it wasn't. Most of the suggestions are dangerous enough that the game would be better off had the committee never met.

One of the postulates governing NCAA legislation is that for every rule passed, there is an opposite and often more powerful impact the rulesmakers never anticipated. These are but a few:

Proposal: Schools may award a maximum of four scholarships each year.
Intent: To prevent coaches from "running off" players.
Unintended consequence: The 2005 Final Four may resemble your local Gus Macker 3-on-3 tournament.

If a school graduates four players, loses one ahead of schedule to the NBA and another to a transfer to a lower-level program, this rule will allow only four of those six to be replaced. So even though the grad-rate bonus gets this school an extra scholarship, it still can have only 12 players on the roster. Lovely.

This is an effort to solve a problem that barely exists. This past spring proved—with starters leaving Providence, Kentucky, Oklahoma and Tulane—more players transfer to suit their interests than are shoved out by coaching cads. Even when players aren't regulars, their decisions to transfer are most often cooperative efforts with their former programs.

Proposal: Shorten the summer evaluation period from 24 to 14 days in July, with 10 scouting days shifted to the spring—so long as prep and JC coaches supervise the tournaments.
Intent: To lessen the influence of club coaches and shoe companies in recruiting.
Unintended consequence: A lot of "sleepers" will continue to snooze.

Kids get overlooked all the time, even with the period nearly a month long. The powers who orchestrated these changes have no concept of parents' desperation to get their kids fairly evaluated so they'll have a chance at a Division I scholarship. This rule was conceived with only the elite players in mind.

Kansas guard Jeff Boschee admits he never would have gotten a look from the Jayhawks were it not for the Nike All-American Camp.

Proposal: Teams may practice no sooner than 34 days before the first regular-season game, which may be scheduled no sooner than the Friday following Thanksgiving. Exempt tournaments could begin before the holiday.
Intent: To allow players time to get established academically.
Unintended consequence: The poor get poorer. Traditional powers such as Duke, Kentucky and North Carolina always have opportunities to play in tournaments such as the Preseason NIT because they're TV and gate attractions. This rule would most often give the prime-timers 10 days more practice than second-tier schools.

Proposal: Incoming freshmen need a 2.0 grade point average and 12 completed credits after one semester to be eligible for the second term.
Intent: To force players to immediately acclimate themselves to college academic life.
Unintended consequence: "Uh, is this Basket Weaving 101?"

Even the most prestigious academic schools in Division I will not point their incoming freshmen into rigorous classes if they have no margin for error. The tough stuff will wait until later. TSN

Mike DeCourcy covers college basketball for the Cincinnati Enquirer. E-mail him at decourcy@sportingnews.com.

Houli's Thought

Proposal: NCAA starts to incorporate academics into the basketball experience.
Intent: Improve its image, and deflect criticism before it occurs.
Unintended consequence: Schools that emphasize the education before basketball, will rise to the top of NCAA Basketball rankings. Games will be competitive, not just talented. The NBA and its billion dollar industry will be forced to develop their own minor league (read CBA) and the NCAA will be able to differentiate its product and out perform the NBA in its products.

OK, I reached a little on the last sentence, but you have to dream and vision something before it will ever happen.

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