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Message: [QUOTE="cuseincincy, post: 789499, member: 331"] This is the most obvious answer and would solve most of the problems. I do not know why the NBA has never developed minor league systems. They have fewer players and equipment requirements than either baseball or hockey. It should be doable. Most likely reason is probably the success they have had allowing colleges to develop players for them. If they don't want to do it then they are apparently happy with the college and junior college systems to continue in their role. If a player doesn't want to go to school that is their decision. The NBA should not require any # of years of college. If a player is ready then draft him. If he's not then don't. It is not the NBA's responsibility to provide an income or support system to develop players that are not ready. If a player who is not ready wants to continue to play basketball to improve their game in hopes of a professional career down the road the college path is there. All they have to do is meet the academic requirements which is not all that great in the junior college world. Football minor leagues is a tougher task because of the numbers of players and equipment involved in fielding teams. It is also tougher because of the physical nature fewer players are ready to compete with adults at a young age. Again, it is not the NFL's responsibility to put a support system in place but they should not have age requirements. Police themselves by not drafting players who are not physically ready to play. The main thing in my mind that needs to be done is by the NCAA. They need to loosen the rules governing student athlete employment. Admittedly I do not know the current rules and acknowledge the inherent system abuse this may contain. But put some guidelines in place where kids can get jobs making minimum wage and police them to make sure they are actually working. If that means Jonny Football gets hired by a store to come and sign autographs for minimum wage so be it (that would be pretty dumb of him considering it would flood the market with his autograph and impair his future earning ability). But the kids who need it have to be able to make some pocket change. Lastly the NCAA needs to loosen its requirements about the ability of players who have been drafted to return to college. I say if a player has not played in a regular season NBA/NFL game then he should be able to return to college to play his sport. I know this is a dramatic change but what is the real difference between a kid who leaves early and doesn't make a pro team and the guy who didn't declare for the draft? This would be tricky but its really semantics the NCAA just needs to get over. They still have to be academically eligible and that should be the only thing that matters. [/QUOTE]

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