Men's College Basketball is Unwatchable

I don't know, or remember if I have done a men's NCAA college midseason redo, and I want to talk about why I haven't today.

I have been quite critical of men's college basketball for some time. I am not a fan of the whole "one and done" era. I feel like it has made the sport nearly unwatchable. I also think, if a kid feels like they are good enough to go straight from high school to the pros, let them. Also, if they don't get drafted, let them go to school for a couple of years to hone their skills. While the college game isn't in a good spot right now, it is better than the G League. I also have zero problem with star high school players going overseas for a year. At least then they are getting paid to play, and as you all know, I love the whole pay to play idea being floated right now.

Lets get back to why I didn't do a midseason redo. I didn't do one because this particular season of men's college basketball has been a very, very bad season. I don't know most of the top players because, as is the case with "one and done", I have had no time getting to know these kids. I know who is on Michigan's team because they are my team. But, if someone told me they would give me 100 dollars to name just one single player on Baylor's team, the current number one team in the nation mind you, I couldn't do it. Hell, I can't name a single player on Gonzaga, and they are the number 2 ranked team. In fact, of the top 10 teams, I can only name a few of star players on these teams. I know Azubuike from KU because he is a third year player. I went and saw Obi Toppin from Dayton when they came to Saint Louis to play SLU. And I know the names Carey and Stanley and Jones from Duke, but that is because Duke is always on TV. As for the other teams, San Diego State is undefeated, and I can't name a single player. Louisville is a top 5 team, no idea who they have. FSU is ranked highly, and again, I thought Johnathan Issac was still on that team until I saw a Magic game on League Pass the other night. And Maryland, who is inexplicably in the Big Ten, I don't know anyone they have, and I have watched them once or twice this year. Hell, it takes until I get to Kentucky, the 12th ranked team, before I recognize a guy that could go high in the draft in Tyrese Maxey. From there on out, I am totally lost, especially since Michigan State and Michigan aren't ranked.

This is my biggest problem, and I don't know if this year is an anomaly, or if this will become the new normal. Starting next year they are getting rid of "one and done", and while I like that, I think it will water down the college game that much more. There is no continuity. There are no real star players right now, or if there are guys considered "stars" this season, they are hurt or play for bad teams. I see this Edwards kid on the top of most mocks, and he is supposedly great, but he plays for Georgia. They aren't making the NCAA tournament this year. Cole Anthony, who I watched super close this weekend, is on a 10-13 UNC team. Side note, I was very, very wrong about them being a title contender this year. James Wiseman has already left college after the NCAA made it their mission to get him out of Memphis. And the rest of the "top" guys are overseas, hurt or playing for Dayton. This Toppin kid is great, but no one knows who he is. I only heard of him a couple of weeks ago. LaMelo Ball and RJ Hampton are in New Zealand and Australia. And Tyrese Haliburton, from Iowa State, is going to miss extended time with a hand injury. It's such a bummer to see these top guys on bad teams or hurt.

When I sit back and try to figure out why the college game is so bad, I keep coming back to the fact that the NCAA is corrupt, and they only care about these kids as long as they go to the Kentucky's and Duke's and KU's of the world. I thought KU was supposed to get hammered with sanctions by the way. What happened to that? Also, Duke isn't as good as they were last year, and Kentucky hasn't been a legit contender since KAT was there. But again, all of this leads me back to the NCAA and how ridiculous they are. What men's college basketball has become is a kind of farm system for the NBA for all the "one and done" guys. This has totally watered the game down. And if you look at the recent champs, with few exceptions, the teams filled with "one and done" guys hasn't won anything of importance. Zion and RJ Barrett at Duke last year only got to the Elite Eight. When Ben Simmons was at LSU they didn't even get in the tournament. The Andrew Wiggins and Joel Embiid KU team, they got bounced in the second round. In fact, the only two teams filled with "one and done" guys that won were Kentucky, who had an otherworldly talent in Anthony Davis, and a Duke team that had Jahlil Okafor, Justise Winslow and some other dudes.

Honestly, I don't think the men's game will get any better until they have put pay to play in fully, and let the high school kids who didn't get drafted come back. They need to do what the MLB does. There would be so much more incentive to these kids to stick around, for at least two years, if they are getting paid a stipend, and getting to refine the skills they need to to become better, more NBA ready players. Take a guy like Jahlil Okafor. He is a dinosaur in the modern NBA, and he can barely see the floor. If he had the option to return to Duke, and work on his jumper, maybe he is a sixth man. Or take Andrew Wiggins. He has struggled mightily since being the number one pick a few years back. Say he was able to make some real money while at KU, get info from the NBA on what he needed to work on, and was able to do that at KU for another year or so. What would his career look like now. Or think about all the high draft picks that spent one, maybe 2 years in college. Take a guy like Anthony Bennett. He was total flop. But, he was only at UNLV for like a year, and he needed to go pro to make some money. Say he was getting some cash for jersey sales at UNLV, and he could've stayed and worked, gotten better, and maybe, just maybe he wouldn't be a footnote. Or go back to when high schoolers could still declare. Take someone like Kwame Brown. Say he gets the intel while in the draft process, decides to go to school for a few years, I think he comes out as a much better pro, and imagine how dominant he would've been in college for a few years. It would have been awesome.

I'm very down on men's college basketball. I have been for a few years. But this season has been especially awful, and I feel like it will continue in this direction until we give these student athletes some real compensation, and open up the draft process a little more. I don't know that I necessarily agree with the "draft experts" that this isn't a "good" draft. I just think that the college game is so bogged down with players are filled with "potential", but don't get the adequate time to prepare for life as a pro basketball player, and that is on the NCAA and NBA to change that.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet. 

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.

A New Perspective on Pay to Play

While I thought that I had said pretty much everything I wanted to on the "Pay to Play" law yesterday,

I didn't.

I was talking to my dad today about the new possibility of this becoming a law, and we got on the topic of being a parent of an athlete that a school may have profited, or will profit, off of. Now, my dad, all of us are grown. If we had a shot, we didn't make it, or we didn't try. I do have one brother that played college football, but I honestly do not remember if anyone had his jersey, or wore stuff with his likeness on it. So we then shifted the conversation to his grand-kids, and my kids. He asked me how I would feel if my son or daughter was a good enough athlete that they were being heavily recruited to play college sports, and "Pay to Play" became a real thing, what would I do, as their parent. Would I try to steer them to a certain school, or would I let them do what they please.

Now, I would love to say that I would let them do whatever they want to do. I do that now. I let them make choices, although they are small. I let them pick clothes, how they want to do their hair, what they want for dessert, just small things here and there. But, if "Pay to Play" becomes a real thing, god I hope it does, I would be lying to myself if I said I wouldn't try and steer them towards the schools that have "Pay to Play". I am a Michigan fan through and through. They are my ride or die squad. As you all know, they are the only sports team that I truly love. But, "Pay to Play" is not a thing in Michigan yet. My dad told me to envision my kids being college athletes now, and singularly focus on the states that have passed "Pay to Play". That made me think extra hard. Still, I would let them know all the advantages of playing in a state that has "Pay to Play", as opposed to states that don't allow it. I would let them know that the schools in California and New York would give them a much deserved piece of the profit that they are making off selling my kids jersey, or items that may have their likeness on it. I would also let them know that states that do not yet have the law, those schools would take all the money and give it to coaches and assistant coaches and AD's and the NCAA. I would let them know that they would be taken advantage of if they chose to go to a school in a state where "Pay to Play" was not an option. That they wouldn't see a dime of stuff that has anything pertaining to them on it. I would let them know what an injustice that is, and try and steer them towards a school that would help them out with more than just a scholarship. I would want them to be comfortable in college, and not have to worry about going out to get a meal because it may or may not be an NCAA violation. I also just think it is right for them to see a little something if they are making millions of dollars for a college that they are going to. It just seems right. Sure, it would be tough for them to be so far away from my wife and I, but still, they would deserve to be compensated. They would deserve to be comfortable. They shouldn't feel like lesser than a university, especially if they are making money for the school. That is my perspective as a parent in a world with the "Pay to Play" act possibly becoming a real thing.

Look, the NCAA is as corrupt as FIFA, and for them to act like victims in this new world is appalling. I hope "Pay to Play" becomes a world wide thing so I wouldn't have to steer my kids to a place where they would be taken care of. But if it doesn't, and just stays on the West and East Coast, then I would try and get them to look so much closer at those schools than schools close to home, or schools I am a fan of. That is the honest truth.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.

Every State Needs to Pass Pay to Play Laws

I am very happy right now that the "Pay to Play" bill is getting closer and closer to becoming the law. It is about damn time that these kids get to benefit off their likeness and jersey sales in college sports. I wrote, maybe a week or so ago, how I have totally flipped to the side that these kids deserve some kind of compensation, outside of a scholarship. The money that the schools, and coaches make off the superstar players on their teams is insane, and the fact that the player sees no kind of return, well it is asinine.

My wife and I talked about this very subject the other night, and she actually disagreed with me, saying that a scholarship was enough for the star players because soon they would be making a fortune. I countered with the fact that some of the highest paid employees in certain states are coaches, usually of the football teams. She did not know that. I know that Jim Harbaugh is the highest paid employee in Michigan. The same can be said for Nick Saban and Alabama. I wouldn't even be shocked if guys like Jeremy Pruitt and Willie Taggart are the highest paid employees in Tennessee and Florida, and they are coaches of struggling football teams.

All of this is to say, if the coaches, their staffs and the university, and the NCAA, can profit millions upon millions upon millions of dollars, why can't the kids bringing in the profits see a dime? That is why I am all for the "Pay to Play" act. This makes me so happy. I love that California has already passed it. I think Florida has as well. I know places like Ohio and New York are in the process of getting this passed as well. And it is about damn time.

I am going to go back to some of the players I mentioned from my first article. And while my wife isn't wrong, Chris Webber and Zion Williamson are set for life now, the fact that they got nothing in college, and the school and coaches got millions, is sickening. I want to go back to the UNC-Duke game from last year, the one Obama was in attendance for. The tickets were upwards of 10,000 dollars, everywhere you looked , people had Duke jerseys with the number 1 on the back, Williamson's number and there were so many branded shirts in the crowd for both schools. But, the 10 players on the floor, most notably Zion, got none of the money. People, random students, were wearing his jersey, and he didn't see a dollar. Same thing goes for Webber at Michigan. He would go into the bookstore at school, see his number 4 jersey for sale for upwards of 60 bucks, and he could barely afford a meal at McDonald's. That is criminal. And, it isn't like these kids can get a job in the offseason. Their sport is essentially their job in college. One, I think it is against the rules for an athlete to have a job, and second, they have no time. I had a friend that played division 1-AA football, and he never had an offseason. During football season, he was up at 5 for a morning practice, then off to class all day, then back in the afternoon for a practice, then film study, then study hall, then lights out. This was all year long in fact. Even when football was over, he still had weight training, study hall, film sessions and anything else that the football team needed him to do. He didn't have time for a job. And this was 1-AA football. So, just imagine what the top flight, top prospects have to go through in D-1. It has to be insane. I'm sure a guy like Jerry Jeudy from Alabama, a top flight receiving prospect, and one of the top prospects in the nation, has zero time to focus on anything other than football. Yet, he has been at Alabama for three years, people wear his jersey in the stands and he sees nothing from it. He has to deal with a curmudgeon of a head coach, who is making money hand over fist. He has a university that is throwing him out there to promote Alabama football, from which they make tons of money. And he just has to sit back and accept that he has to wait until the NFL draft before he can make any money. That is so wrong. And Jeudy is just one of the many prospects, across all major sports at big time schools, that is being unfairly kept away from profiting off their name and image.

Point is, I'm fully on board with guys like Draymond Green and Richard Sherman. I hope this destroys the corrupt and immoral NCAA, and I love college sports. But, it is high time that these kids, who are being put on national TV, having their jerseys being sold, having to talk to media members and being portrayed as bastions to their university get some compensation. Tim Tebow is an idiot and the people who think a scholarship is enough are wrong. Too many student athletes have been taken advantage of for far too long, and it seems like their time may finally be coming. I know if either one of my kids ends up playing a sport in college, and they are good enough that people buy anything with their likeness, name or face on it, I would want them to see a share of that money.

Lets hope the "Pay to Play" act is the wave of the future needed in college sports. I fully support this law.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.