He missed out on a year of getting paid an NBA salary
The solution is make it so the professional leagues take in the guys who are wanting to play professionally
There are guys who don't belong in college, and that is ok.
No the bigger thing would be the NFL stop being cheapskates and start there own minor league system and the usopc embracing the european model.
First off, I hope everyone has a happy Canada Day, and I love Canada and Canadians and hate any type of ethnocentric or nationalist non-sense. But it is so hard to talk about this topic with Canadians, or Europeans, or anywhere else, because no one else already HAS the college athletics system in place, and think we can just tear down one structure and build a totally new one when literally no one has the power to do so:
- The NCAA
CANNOT FORCE THE NBA TO CHANGE ITS DRAFT RULES.
Does Ben Simmons BELONG in college? No.
Can Ben Simmons SKIP COLLEGE and play Pro right away before he's draft eligible? Yes. Absolutely.
Should NCAA Schools NOT RECRUIT guys like that because they have no place in college athletics? Sure, but there's no way to legislate that and coaches aren't going to skip an elite recruit because they might not lose them.
- The NCAA
CANNOT FORCE THE NFL TO CHANGE ITS DRAFT RULES, OR CREATE A MINOR LEAGUE.
When every talks about paying athletes, NO ONE talks about the value of college BASEBALL players or college HOCKEY players. Because MLB and NHL have minor leagues, and Draft Rules that aren't completely stupid.
And of course, Ben Simmons and Dexter Manley and all the other examples of guys who don't belong in college sports -- they all go to the Power 5 schools! That's a problem that exists BECAUSE of the pro leagues, not the NCAA, and in the POWER FIVE
because the Power 5 (or schools outside it who are close to getting in) are the ones doing whatever it takes to win because the stakes are so big for them, not in the "THE NCAA" as a whole.