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Students for a season

ATLANTA — A high school basketball phenom — we'll call him Joe — fancies himself as the next LeBron James, the NBA superstar who went straight from the prom to the pros.

But Joe has a problem. His direct path to the league is blocked by a new rule requiring players to be 19 and a year removed from high school before being drafted. His best option will be to play one season in college before he can turn pro.

Joe has a plan. He'll take an easy schedule of classes in the fall semester, knowing he has to pass only two of the four to earn the six hours of credit to stay eligible for the spring semester, when the season ends. And since he's going to the NBA after the season, once the spring semester starts, he won't have to attend a single class at the school he'll represent all the way through the NCAA tournament.

Joe's entire plan is within NCAA eligibility rules.

Anybody got a problem with that?

College basketball's all-time winningest coach sure does.

"This hits right at the core of the integrity of college sports," Texas Tech's Bob Knight said earlier this month. "College athletics should be about kids who are bona fide students who have done whatever is necessary for them to play each semester."

David Ridpath, who runs an organization of educators trying to bring academic sanity back into college athletics, isn't surprised. It is, he said, just the latest example of the athletics tail wagging the academic dog.

"These guys come in as rent-a-players," said Ridpath, executive director of the Drake Group and an assistant professor at Ohio University. "Absolutely no thought is given to their academic progress. If any one them is still going to class after April 1, I'll be shocked."

Freshmen help product

There's no question the NBA's new rule has improved the quality of college basketball this season.

Look no further than Ohio State, which is headed to Atlanta on Thursday for the Final Four. If not for the rule, Buckeyes center Greg Oden would almost certainly be in the NBA right now instead of trying to lead his team to its first national title since 1960. He's that good.

Texas forward Kevin Durant, who dominated the Big 12 as a freshman this season, was clearly ready for the NBA out of high school. He joined Oden on The Associated Press' All-American first team Monday.

"It's obvious that [the age rule] has been good for college basketball," Ohio State coach Thad Matta said. "You've seen what a huge impact these freshmen have made. These guys may be young, but they can really play."

But others whose livelihoods aren't directly connected to the game wonder if bringing in these "one-and-done" players isn't the latest example of universities selling another piece of their souls for the dollars and TV exposure that come from winning.

"We have to be very concerned about it," Ole Miss Chancellor Robert Khayat said. "It's hard to tell someone that they can't become independently wealthy. But at the same time, we have to be firmly committed to protect the academic integrity of our institutions."

Rule has pros and cons

Those who believe the new rule, when implemented properly, is healthy for college basketball and their institutions point out three things:

1. This is not an NCAA rule. NBA commissioner David Stern implemented the rule to basically save owners and general managers from themselves.

For every LeBron James, there were dozens of guys drafted purely on potential and never heard from again.

"It's a great rule for the NBA," Memphis coach John Calipari said. "They get a second look at the kid at the highest possible competition. The kid goes to the biggest league he can find so that he really gets exposed. The NBA has a better idea of what they are getting."

NCAA president Myles Brand is on record saying that while the rule isn't a perfect fit for college basketball, it's better than no rule at all. Knowing they have to play at least one year of college basketball, Brand argues, at least makes the athlete prepare for college.

Ridpath isn't buying Brand's argument.

"It may be an NBA rule, but anybody who says the NCAA doesn't have their handprints on this is just wrong," Ridpath said.

2. The rule benefits high school players because once some of them get to college, they learn they're simply not that good. So some of them choose to stick around for more than a year to work on their game.

"It helps them understand what they will need to do to perform in a man's world," Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt said. "And trust me when I tell you that at the next level, there are men playing this game."

3. If everybody just does their job, the system will work for both the school and the athletes. Earlier this month, Texas coach Rick Barnes told reporters that prior to Durant's enrollment, he received assurances from the player and his mother that Durant would do the academic work required of him. He'd continue to go to class until the end of the semester — even if he decided to turn pro.

Texas basketball spokesman Scott McConnell said that after Texas lost to Southern Cal this month in Spokane, Wash., the team got back to campus early Monday morning. Durant was in class later that day.

"All we've ever said is if we recruit a player and that player said to us, 'I'm coming to school for one year, and as soon as basketball season is over with I'm dropping out of school,' we would not recruit that player," Barnes said.

Early exit can cost school

Coaches now have an incentive to make sure players don't blow off their academic work when the season ends.

The NCAA's new Academic Progress Rate (APR) calculates the progress athletes are making toward a degree. Each school must make a minimum APR score of 925, which is compiled by tracking the eligibility and academic progress of each athlete. When athletes leave and are not in good academic standing, the school loses points toward that score.

Penalties for failing range from a loss of scholarships to potentially a ban on postseason play.

"The NCAA has made allowances in the APR for people who leave school to turn pro or for some other reason the institution cannot control," said Glada Horvat, Georgia's assistant athletics director for academics and eligibility. "But if they leave and they haven't done the work, it will eventually cost the school."

Florida State President T.K. Wetherell wants the NCAA to take the APR a step further and institute a minimum graduation rate for each sport. If teams don't meet it, they will not be allowed in postseason play.

"Do that and you wouldn't have to worry about how many classes a student takes each semester or if they are a one-and-done player," Wetherell wrote in an e-mail to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "If they are willing to penalize universities because their mascot/symbol is not politically correct, they should be concerned with students getting an education. The accountability for that at the university level is: Did the student earn a degree?"

Hewitt said that if schools are cutting corners to let freshmen slide into the NBA, the truth will eventually come out.

"There are going to be slip-ups, particularly when you're dealing with 18-year-old kids," Hewitt said. "But I tend to take a more optimistic view than Coach Knight and others. If a kid makes it clear that he's not going to go to class in the second semester, I just don't think the people in our profession are going to let that fly."

Oden said he is enrolled for the spring quarter and taking a full load, including pre-calculus and history. Classes started Monday at Ohio State.

When asked if that meant he'd return to college next season, Oden simply smiled.

Adjustments needed

So what, if anything, can be done about one-and-done players? In a recent article in The Sports Business Journal, former Maryland star-turned-attorney Len Elmore made the case that even a taste of college helps players sharpen their skills and maturity.

That caused Ridpath to fire off a response to Elmore.

"I reject the argument that the exposure to even a few months of college is better than none," Ridpath wrote. "It is certainly not the case when the athlete is sequestered from the student body and not existing as an actual student."

Several big-name coaches have suggested a system patterned after the one used in baseball, where a high school player who is drafted has a choice: Go straight to the minors or make a three-year commitment to college.

Basketball coaches would settle for a two-year commitment. If players didn't want to give it, they'd be free to enter the NBA draft.

"What that does is make the kid give an academic commitment of at least three semesters," Knight said. "It brings more credibility back into the process."

Tony Barnhart writes for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.