Changes could be coming to basketball, after the NCAA's Commission on College Basketball recommended reforms this week to restore what they call credibility and fairness to the game.
But, the recommendations might not be as significant as they sound.
The NCAA established the commission after an FBI investigation into college basketball, which resulted in several people being charged in a bribery and kickback scheme.
Earlier this week, college basketball stakeholders shuffled into a large room, where former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stood at the podium. She heads the Commission on College Basketball, and helped draft a nearly 60-page report of recommendations. In it, the commission says corruption and deception "threatens the very survival of the game as we know it."
Among the changes proposed to address those issues, the commission wants to separate the paths for collegiate and professional basketball.
It wants to do away with the "one-and-done" rule, which requires players to be one year removed from high school before going to the NBA. Rice says elite players shouldn't be forced to attend college
"These uniquely talented elite players are the focus of agents, and apparel companies, and investment advisers, and college coaches and others who seek to profit from their skills," Rice says.
The commission also wants the NCAA to change its penalty structure and establish a new panel to investigate potential rules violations.
J.R. Holmes is the athletic director and head basketball coach at Bloomington High School South. He thinks some of the commission's recommendations could be good for the sport, like eliminating one and done. He says the pressure created by the college basketball system trickles down to some high school athletes.
"We have kids now who leave after their junior year and go to college," Holmes says. "So, they're forgoing their senior year. It's almost like a three and done, and I think it hurts the high school game."
But many of the commission's proposals aren't new ideas.
Galen Clavio is Director of the National Sports Journalism Center at Indiana University. He says he was underwhelmed by the report. Many of the suggested reforms don't fall under the authority of the NCAA.
"The NBA has to decide those things and, frankly, the idea of making freshmen ineligible as a retaliatory measure for not changing the one-and-done rule doesn't make a whole lot of sense," Clavio says.
He does think the NCAA will adopt some of the changes, but questions whether they'll make much of a difference.
"I think the NCAA needs to be honest with itself that it's not 1954 anymore," Clavio says. "And, that the very nature of college basketball, the nature of talent coming through college basketball has changed. And, there's nothing wrong with that. We saw the Olympics go through this about 30 years ago where they saw the amateur model wasn't working, let's move to a model where athletes can be compensated fairly for what their market value is."
The NCAA Board of Governors and Division I Board of Directors unanimously endorsed the recommendations this week. The groups could move to formally adopt the changes later this summer.
