RebKell's Junkie Boards

[ArtBest23]

This is a good article about the continuing growth of college as a route to the NHL.

www.nytimes.com/2018/10/20/sports/hockey/nhl-college-coaches.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fsports&action=click&contentCollection=sports&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=7&pgtype=sectionfront

Traditionally hockey players came up through the Canadian minor leagues and almost no collegians made it to the pros. Now a third of the players in the NHL took the college route.

I believe hockey works like baseball. You can go pro right out of HS and get paid while you develop your game in the minor pro leagues, or you can take a college scholarship and not get paid while you play college hockey (or baseball). It's voluntary; it's your choice. But if you choose to go to college, you aren't eligible for the pros for three years. So no one-year-wonder nonsense. You can, however be drafted and the team holds your draft rights while you attend college. They say during televised games what team owns the rights for those players who have been drafted.

I think this is a fair system. Players get a choice to go pro, either because they want or need to get paid or because they're simply not suited for or interested in a college education. Or they can choose to play in return for just a free education. No one's making them play for free. In the meantime, colleges know that players who choose college will be around for three years, and schools know that there is a real education opportunity involved, not just one-semester mercenaries like in the current mens basketball situation.

This requires some cooperation between the colleges, pro leagues and pro unions. And it would make all pro leagues (especially NBA, WNBA, and NFL) fund and run bona fide minor developmental leagues like baseball and hockey do. Only the NBA is making any effort at this.

But it would be fair to players and help eliminate the current farce in colleges of players who have zero interest in education.

[TechDawgMc]

Men's basketball appears to be headed that way with players being offered $125K to play in the G-league. I think most of your one-and-done type guys will go that direction. If you don't care about school, why not make money playing?

Football will have a tough time going a route like that since there's no minor league. WBB probably would have the problem of there not being enough money in the system to do any kind of minor league.

[willtalk]

Think this is a good idea with one addition. That the players if they decide to try professional ball get an opportunity to try out for a team to see how well they do before signing a contract and being declared a Pro. This way they do not kill the college option based on on silly decision.

I think this is necessary for a variety of reasons. For one I do not believe their is a market for too many minor league teams in too many sports so the number of available positions will be very limited. Perhaps just in basketball, hockey and football and the later two would not apply to womens sports.

They would basically be developmental leagues which would require them to be subsidized by the big money making major leagues. I believe that the WNBA barely make enough to pay for themselves so I don't see them being able to subsidize a minor league, Besides they have that in the over seas leagues already.

If we are honest the only sports this might work with would be football and ice hockey. Baseball already has a system in place. Womens sports and other low revenue sports just do not generate enough money to make this happen across the board. In fact if it happened in football it would have a chin reaction that might actually end up eliminating a lot of non revenue sports in college. Why because football generates most of the revenue that pays for the others.

_________________
No one one is ever as good as their best game, nor as bad as their worst.