Why the NBA Draft Age Limit Needs To Be Revised

(Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

With the NBA's collective bargaining agreement set to expire in 2011, it's time to to think about changing the age of draft entering eligibility back to 18. The current rule that you have to be at least 19 years old to enter the NBA Draft is absolutely absurd.

Since the new age limit's inception in 2006, the NCAA has seen a slew of one-and-done players come and go. Players such as Derrick Rose and Kevin Durant come to school for one year and leave. This makes it very hard to recruit for coaches. Coaches cannot build a team around these guys because they rarely stay more than one year.

This rule is making a mockery out of the college game. College basketball has become a farm system for guys like Rose and Durant who are only enrolled in school because they have to be. They are not there to take classes and receive an education; they are merely there to bide there time and impress scouts until they can enter the NBA Draft and sign lucrative multi-million dollar contracts.

Basketball analysts such as Dick Vitale and Bobby Knight have spoken out against the age limit as well. College basketball should be for the student-athletes who want to be at school and not for the ones who are waiting until they can sign their huge professional contracts.

It's time the NBA went back to allowing young men to enter the NBA Draft once they graduate high school. If we are going to make these athletes go to college for a year because it is "beneficial" for them, then we might as well make every student in America go to college for at least a year and not enter the workforce so they are seasoned before they can work and earn a paycheck.

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?