The NCAA Board of Governors is reported to be assessing their rules after unanimously voting Wednesday to accept the recommendations of a special panel that proposed drastic changes to college basketball.
The decision came after the board met with the 11-member panel of the Commission on College Basketball and its leader, former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who released a scathing report on the issues that plague the game.
“The levels of corruption and deception are now at a point that they threaten the very survival of the college game as we know it. It has taken some time to get here, and it will take some time to change course,” the report said.
The commission called for the end of the college players’ “one-and-done” rule, which would require the approval of the NBA and its players union. It involves the best talents in college basketball playing only their freshman season before being eligible for the NBA.
If the NBA and union do not change the rule, the commission said it would reconvene to consider unilateral alternatives such as freshman ineligibility.
In a joint statement issued just hours after Rice announced the recommendations, the NBA and the players’ union pledged only to continue assessing the rules.
Dr. Tomika Ferguson, an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Leadership at Virginia Commonwealth University, said she was elated to see the commission’s report focus on the student athletes and on ethics.
