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[QUOTE="pfister1, post: 197499, member: 285"]
I respectfully believe that you are both wrong.   Why is it a mistake to let anyone who wants to declare, declare?   First, there is no inherent reason that being drafted has to make you ineligible to play college ball.   The simple fact that you have been drafted or been eligible to be drafted does not have to make you a professional.   That is an arbitrary line in the sand that has been drawn.   Because the line has been drawn there, there have been many other things that players have been allowed to do at the time they declare that do have the effect of making them professionals e.g. taking money or benefits from an agent.    But I think that is cause and effect.   The cause being that declaring for the Draft has arbitrarily been deemed to end you amateur status.   The effect being that guys that have declared now feel free to do things that are inconsistent with retaining their amateur status.
 
Second the one year college rule is not in place to protect student athletes.  It is there to protect the NBA from having to pay lots of kids that they don't feel ready to evaluate properly yet.    If Shabazz Muhammad were to decide to go pro, several teams would feel the need to use a pick on him because of the potential he has shown.   It might be a well used pick in that he may be the next Kobe or Lebron or it may be a bad pick in that he may be the next Robert Swift.     Forcing them to go to college for a year gives the NBA a year of relatively standardized competition where they can better evaluate these guys before investing huge sums of money in a bust.
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