NCAA to Let Underclassmen Return After testing waters...

That is good for the players. I think they are trying to keep their work for free players and so making concessions.

It's a step in the right direction, but like anything along these lines, I'm not sure that it goes far enough.

While it's great that a kid can go to combine, work out, etc. and still come back, my fear is that it still is happening too late for the student.

Take Cliff Alexander. While all of the facts will probably never be known, it's clear that he or somebody close to him took a loan, and it cost him not only in a loss of games at the end of last season, but also his potential draft position, and to a great extent, his opportunity to come back to school for another year. It would seem that both he and his parents believed up until his suspension that he was a lottery pick (or at least a 1st round guy), and so I doubt that there was ever any serious thought about coming back for a 2nd year, until circumstances conspired to make that opportunity impossible (or very difficult). The result: he goes undrafted, plays his way onto the roster in Portland and is averaging 4 minutes and 1.7 ppg, and may or may not have much of a career in the league.

How does this relate to this rule change? It's relevant because I'm sure that many players essentially take their 2nd semester of their last year "off" as they prepare for the draft. As long as they remain eligible through the end of the season, there are no consequences. If you take a class where the grade is determined by a midterm and a final, the midterm might not hit until March and any failing grades might not hit the radar until after the season. At that point, the student is off working out and preparing for the draft. If a kid wakes up under the new rule in late May and realizes that he isn't going to be drafted, his grades might be bad enough that he might not be eligible the next season (without a whole lot of makeup work over the summer).

So while I think this rule is a great step, I still don't think it's as strong as having a kid agree to play for at least 2 (3?) seasons as a condition of their scholarship.