That's a good idea, too. NHL teams draft players who play in college, and hold their rights without signing them to contracts, maintaining amateur status. That could work for basketball. It'd give people a dog in the NCAA fight they might not have otherwise.

to the extent that a "solution" is really needed

Bob Stoops says
“You know what school would cost here for non-state guy?” Stoops rhetorically asked Hayes. “Over $200,000 for room, board and everything else. That’s a lot of money. Ask the kids who have to pay it back over 10-15 years with student loans. You get room and board, and we’ll give you the best nutritionist, the best strength coach to develop you, the best tutors to help you academically, and coaches to teach you and help you develop. How much do you think it would cost to hire a personal trainer and tutor for 4-5 years?

There are a lot of factual errors in Whitlock's piece, which is par for the course, but the whole thing pretty much reads like Cotton Hill talking about how he's going to swim to Cuba with a wrench in his mouth and pose as a beautiful senorita plumber in a scheme to kill Castro. You can poke holes pretty much anywhere along the way.

The easiest solution -- to the extent that a "solution" is really needed -- would be to just let the NBA teams draft whomever they want. You don't need to declare for the draft; you are just drafted, or you aren't. If you are drafted and don't like your slot, then go back to school. There. I fixed the problem.

What a horrendous idea. Honestly, that is one of the worst ones out there.

Just let schools pay up to $3,000 a month above and beyond what they do now. Make it optional. It's done. It's easy.

Why are Republicans/conservatives almost universally opposed to paying players? Shouldn't they be in favor of a free market?

I agree that Whitlock'a proposal has serious flaws, but I really prefer his progressive compensation scale to the fixed flat rate that you're proposing.

You can poke a hole in your simple solution just as easily. NBA would never go for it because it hurts their product where it's already the weakest - a top-heavy league will become even more unbalanced.

There are a lot of factual errors in Whitlock's piece, which is par for the course, but the whole thing pretty much reads like Cotton Hill talking about how he's going to swim to Cuba with a wrench in his mouth and pose as a beautiful senorita plumber in a scheme to kill Castro.