College Players Staying in School Is Good for the Sport but Not for Every School

There may not be an NBA season next year unless there is a new collective bargaining agreement.

One of the topics to be discussed this offseason will be whether or not to drop the “one-and-done” rule or extend the time frame in entering the NBA draft by one or two years.

Experts like Jay Bilas and Steve Kerr say this will help College and Professional basketball. Others, like Colin Cowherd, say it won’t help the league that much and it’s not right to tell a kid they have to go to college instead of making millions next year.

No one denies that it will help College Basketball.

But will it be good for the Gonzagas and Butlers of the world?

Part of the reason these programs have been successful is because the level of play at the elite schools have dropped, so that in an NCAA single-elimination tournament even the weaker teams can upset a better team.

When this happens it is referred to as the "Flutie Effect." When Doug Flutie threw that Hail Mary against The University of Miami, the attendance and recognition of Boston College skyrocketed up.

Now when an average player in high school has a choice of sitting the bench at an elite basketball program or go and play at a Butler, now those high schoolers are more willing to go to Butler because everybody has heard of them.

In today’s college basketball those average basketball players by the time they are seniors can surprise and upset a freshman heavy team.

Could these small programs compete, similar to the way they have been competing if players had to stay three years just like the football players have to?

Some players who would still be in college basketball this year:

Tyreke Evans

Jrue Holiday

Brandon Jennings

Greg Monroe

John Wall

DeMarcus Cousins

Derrick Favors

Xavier Henry

Assuming John Calipari still went to the University of Kentucky; the Kentucky Wildcats starting five next year could look like this: PG John Wall, SG Eric Bledsoe, SF Mike Gilchrist, PF Daniel Orton, C DeMarcus Cousins.

Players coming off the bench: Marquis Teague, DeAndre Liggans, Darius Miller, Anthony Davis. Potential player coming off the bench is Terrence Jones, may have stayed with Washington with DeMarcus and Orton staying for two more years.

If players had to wait three more years after the high school graduating class, elite programs will start to look like this hypothetical Kentucky Basketball team.

That said team would be the first team to compete with the last great college basketball team, the 1996 Kentucky Basketball team.