College Player Celebrity Yields Major Talent

Later this month the NFL will host its 2008 amateur draft, replenishing the league with new talent and rejuvenating the bottom dwellers of the sport. Many of the top selections will already be household names for sports fans because of their years starring for their respective college programs, giving teams a head start on marketing.

The NFL ensures this steady supply of recognizable, marketable talent by maintaining an age limit. The rule states that no one who has been out of high school for less than three years shall be eligible for the draft. Withstanding an unsuccessful challenge by former Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett in 2004, this rule has been ironclad since its inception. Over the years, it has been credited with preventing young stars from entering the league too early and keeping the college talent pool stocked. Its success has encouraged the NBA to emulate the rule. Players now have to be 19 to enter the NBA draft, and commissioner David Stern would like to extend that limit to 20. I argue, however, that the age limit for the draft is suited for football only.

One of the reasons the NFL age limit has stood largely without outcry is that almost all players wouldn’t try to enter the draft underage anyway. Out of the three major sports, football is the most physically punishing by far. At a young age, one’s physical maturity has much to do with how good of a player one is. Hence, few freshmen come in and dominate college football—none have ever won the Heisman Trophy. You only have to look to Notre Dame quarterback and top recruit Jimmy Clausen to see how tough the NCAA landscape is for first-year players.

The landscape in basketball is markedly different. Out of the Final Four teams this year, two, UCLA and Memphis, prominently featured freshmen. Many other freshmen, such as Kansas State forward Michael Beasley, USC guard O.J. Mayo, and Indiana guard Eric Gordon, also starred for their teams. Even the star of Cinderella Davidson, Stephen Curry, is only a sophomore. The freshmen mentioned above are all but certain to declare for the NBA draft, having nothing left to prove in college.

A look to the NBA itself yields even more evidence against the age limit. While it is true that many high-school draftees were busts in the NBA, and the overall “success” rate can be considered low, these statistics should be examined in the overall context of the draft. The NBA draft is inherently a very risky affair: for whatever reason, many highly touted players simply do not excel at the pro level and are considered busts. For every failed high schooler like Kwame Brown there is a Shelden Williams, drafted number five overall as a Duke senior, currently averaging three points and three rebounds per game for the Atlanta Hawks.

At the end of the day, I sense a paternalistic twinge in the arguments for instituting an NBA age limit. Potential draftees aren’t mature enough to make such life-changing decisions, they say. But college and high-school players alike make wrong decisions about their futures (see Gilchrist, John and Forte, Joseph as examples). Perhaps playing in college makes athletes known commodities to the fans. But if that’s the main argument, who really stands to benefit, the marketers or the game?