Lots is being made about how corrupt the NCAA is.  They are locking these players in for “a education” while they are making millions of dollars on the product they produce on the court.

I won’t argue with the corruptness.  There is a difficulty between allowing athletes to make money on their own stardom vs. preventing boosters from coming in and offering large amounts of money and impact the balance of recruiting (although lets face it, Duke, UNC, Kentucky and Kansas are going to dominate recruiting every year….).

I can’t argue with the nonsense.   We live in a capitalistic world.  If a college coach can move from college to college to make more money, why shouldn’t the athletes be able to make some money on their success as well.

But I can argue with the comment about all the colleges are offering them is an education – when we know they are simply going there to play basketball.  And Oklahoma’s guard Trey Young is going to prove my point.

Trae Young was ranked somewhere between 14th and 21st in the recruiting classes, depending on which ranking you want to go with.  While he might have viewed himself as a one-and-done candidate, many projecting the NBA draft did not – as he was not listed as a likely first round candidate by many pre-season NBA mock drafts.

Then, Young led the NCAA in points and assists – bringing comparisons to Stephen Curry – as he led Oklahoma to the NCAA Tournament.   They even lost their first round game to Rhode Island, and yet, everyone got a chance to see how impressive he is.

Now, he is projected to be a lottery pick – ESPN has him as the 9th best prospect.  So, based on one year of college basketball, Young went from someone not likely to be drafted in the first round to a lottery pick looking at somewhere between $6 – $7 million over the next two years with more millions coming in the future.  That seems like that one year of college ended pretty good for him – even if he couldn’t make $10K over a weekend signing autographs or appearing in a local TV advertisement.

People talk about players should go to the NBA G league.  But notice that no one in the G league is projected to be a first round draft pick.  People are suggesting that they should go to the G league – where they will make there $20-26K salary for the year, but then they can get their endorsements.   12 of the G league teams play in arenas that hold no more than 5,000 fans.  Oklahoma’s court can have over 11,000 fans show up – although they normally have closer to 8-10K.   Oh, and I am sure we all are excited about the G League Play-offs that start…..  That’s right, I can’t tell you when the G League Play-offs are (I am sure I can look it up, but that is the point – everyone knows when college basketball plays their championship.

If Young had gone to the G league, he would have gotten far less exposure, likely would not have improved his draft stock, and would have had to play against professional players who are several years older (and physically stronger) than him trying to make sure that the new 18 year old doesn’t take away their last chance to make it to the NBA.   But I am sure he would make up the several million dollars that he is about to make through his endorsements playing for the Wisconsin Herd or the Fort Wayne Mad Ants.

This is becoming more interesting because Syracuse just had their recruit Darius Bazley decommit from school to play in the G league (assuming a team takes him).  We will see if the lure of playing for money and endorsements at 18 works out for him.  Maybe he will pave the way to make the G league a viable path.

But at the end of the day, when people say all the NCAA offers is an education, think about the fact that the exposure that Trae Young has received from being an Oklahoma Sooner has likely made him a minimum of 6 million dollars, it is hard for me to go along with the argument that all these college athletes are being offered is an education.   He might not be able to make any money this year on his skills, but the NCAA has given him a stage that has allowed him to put himself in a position to become one of the next NBA stars – and even if it doesn’t work out, he will have earned over 6 million dollars.  Seems like that value gets forgotten as we try to get college athletes a few thousand dollars in endorsements.