Seriously who even watches NCAA baseball or hockey?

AnubisADL wrote:NCAA Football and Basketball generate ALOT of cash. No way does the NFL or NBA create a minor league.

Seriously who even watches NCAA baseball or hockey?

NCAA hockey is very big but not on a national level like Football or basketball. Div one teams have modest arenas that hold 5,000 and have huge support. Its a tradition type of things. Almost cult like on those campus' and from alumni.

But the best players bound for the pro's are not going that route.

They are in the "juniors" staying with host families and in some cases getting paid with money in trust for college.

Be talking about just a few players.

and in the NCAA basketball your also talking just a hand ful of kids.

Minor league hockey and basketball has economics that work. they are big in areas that don't usually have pro sports but if you notice they are usually close to big ncaa football programs and basketball. Minor league basketball is just not that appealing. How many on this board have even gone to a game?

It obviously has appeal and need as the Dleague is surviving as the CBL before it.

In NC the Charlotte Knights AAA team does well, The Durham Bulls, and the Greensboro GrassHoppers who play in a great new stadium draws well and they are low single A ball. Greensboro should have a higher classificatoin but the owners are making money hand over fist and it costs money to move up to AA or AAA. Its about inexpenive family outings. Personally not my cup of tea but lots of folks flock to these venues!

playa2 wrote:Make NCAA basketball an amateur League again and all parties involved will be better for it.

This is the root of the problems.

How would you like this playa? Not put the games on tv? You think ESPN and CBS would agree to that, so in that sense, is it really the NCAAs fault? Playa, let me ask you something. You're calling the NCAA a plantation because it exploits kids, but don't you realize that most coporations in the US exploit kids? Why focus on the NCAA?

Your views are flawed.

Duke costs about $50,000 a year plus other expenses. I got a friend whose kid for ACADEMICs got a $250,000 package from Duke. includes 10k a year in expenses for travel and incidentals.

Save for maybe, MAYBE 10 players a year are fans tuning in to watch players but they are watching teams. North Carolina had a program well before Mike Jordan stepped on the court for them. These arenas are already built using donor money on land universitys own.

If players had to revenue share AFTER expenses there would not be much left.

Dleague teams can beat just about any Div one school I think. They draw 1,000-2,0000 fans a game with no TV! No Money.

Money is on the plantation long before the players get there. And whey they are a commodity, they turn pro. If not, they can stay.

Is there no value to an education for the 97% of the players who won't earn a nickel playing basketball? No value to a Vanderbilt, Duke, Butler, UNC, Kentucky, Umass, Hofstra, LIU, CW Post, Elon College, Guildford College, Davidson, Valpo, UCLA, USC, UVA, UNLV........Etc etc????????

You have not come up with any viable alternative nor funding mechanism that makes sense.

You make it sound like its evil to make money. All pro league owners are entitled to make money, and big money because they are the ones providing the infrastructre and risk capital to make it work. TV puts up big money to risk on these deals. Money gets lost all the time. I don't see any players giving back money when they suck, when they are hurt, when they lose interest. I don't see players setting up networks or building arenas!

Marv wrote:hey there's no reason why this shouldn't be a win-win.

kid gets:

free 4-year college education
chance to build his skills and hone his game with coaching and training staffs
great national platform to market his game to nba teams
if he keeps up his end, at the least he comes out of it with degree and large local base of potential connections for employment and business opportunities.

college gets:

revenue
exposure
recruiting tool
stimulus for alum to give.

i think there could be more regulation and oversight regarding their courseloads, academic assistance as needed, extra semesters to finish degree if needed, etc.

this link came up on my college board. -->
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100524/ap_on_sp_ot/us_ncaa_losing_scholarships

this is one of the unfair parts that schools/coaches use against players.

Cosmic wrote:

bitty41 wrote:

Cosmic wrote:

sidsanders wrote:they get a real minor league system, the age limit can go...

Why we can't just be like MLB I'll never know. It would help things tremendously!

We can shove our Carrols, Barnes, Morris' down and know their ours no matter what.

What is the problem here? I don't get it. But I do understand why most NBA teams laughed at their D-League assignments. Nothing is guaranteed and if you sent a player down he still counted on your roster leaving you no space to move around players.

Where would the money come from? The NBA is struggling to keep three leagues afloat: NBDL, WNBA, and some franchises in the NBA. Michael Jordan just purchased the Bobcats for measley 25 million dollars. Owners everywhere are desperate to sell their franchises so again where would the money come from for a minor league especially since it is not financially sound to create one.

We could contract the WNBA. ;)

So...why is the NBA broke but MLB is prospering? These situations aren't my problem. Yet if you're going to have a minor league system then the only way it would work is if it was done the way MLB does it. This half-assed mess tangled with Stern's heavy handed rules set it up for failure right from the start.

Yet, Stern is still eyeing expansion of the NBA like a fool when he should be eyeing CONTRACTION of about say 6 teams. Talent pool will rise. Teams will be more improved.

Parity works in the NFL. In the NBA it just guarantees the top handful of teams will remain so.

Contract some franchises, hold a draft of those players from those teams, assign a D-League team for each NBA team.

Otherwise, do away with it (D-League) altogether.

Cosmic we all know and understand this is the way it should be, but only those with their eyes close don't see it that way. The love and greed for Money has ruined people's ethics and integriety

playa2 wrote:

Cosmic wrote:

bitty41 wrote:

Cosmic wrote:

sidsanders wrote:they get a real minor league system, the age limit can go...

Why we can't just be like MLB I'll never know. It would help things tremendously!

We can shove our Carrols, Barnes, Morris' down and know their ours no matter what.

What is the problem here? I don't get it. But I do understand why most NBA teams laughed at their D-League assignments. Nothing is guaranteed and if you sent a player down he still counted on your roster leaving you no space to move around players.

Where would the money come from? The NBA is struggling to keep three leagues afloat: NBDL, WNBA, and some franchises in the NBA. Michael Jordan just purchased the Bobcats for measley 25 million dollars. Owners everywhere are desperate to sell their franchises so again where would the money come from for a minor league especially since it is not financially sound to create one.

We could contract the WNBA. ;)

So...why is the NBA broke but MLB is prospering? These situations aren't my problem. Yet if you're going to have a minor league system then the only way it would work is if it was done the way MLB does it. This half-assed mess tangled with Stern's heavy handed rules set it up for failure right from the start.

Yet, Stern is still eyeing expansion of the NBA like a fool when he should be eyeing CONTRACTION of about say 6 teams. Talent pool will rise. Teams will be more improved.

Parity works in the NFL. In the NBA it just guarantees the top handful of teams will remain so.

Contract some franchises, hold a draft of those players from those teams, assign a D-League team for each NBA team.

Otherwise, do away with it (D-League) altogether.

Cosmic we all know and understand this is the way it should be, but only those with their eyes close don't see it that way. The love and greed for Money has ruined people's ethics and integriety

Greed and lack of integrity has been with us since the beginning of time. Back in the day college players were throwing games and getting paid. This during the golden age.

The talent pool is watered down but at its peak was during a time when even college freshman had to play a year of Jr Varsity. Kareem played only 3 years of varsity ball. He says adveristy and living on your own as equals (almost) as a studant and held to a standard by which you must stay academmically is a challage and thats not such a bad thing.

As far as losing schalorships, seems that the good kids getting bumped out get good support and land elsewhere and get playing time and paid for education. SOme players can't cut it either and a year redshirted while hitting the books not such a bad deal. If they are so good they usually don't get booted or they go to NBA or overseas. We talking the Marginal!

In any event its good that this gets looked into and if players are getting a bad deal then its time to clean it up!

Almost 800 players in the NCAA tournament. Not even 8% are going to play professionally. Division 1 has thousands of players!

My concern is those marginal get an education! If teams constantly bump players they won't get too many recruits.