In 2006, the NBA passed the "one and done" rule, stating that players were required to be at least one year removed from high school graduation before being eligible for the NBA Draft. The rule was designed to deepen the talent pool in the draft, and improve the on-court play in the league.
While those objectives have been accomplished from an NBA standpoint, the college game has suffered, with increasing numbers of players opting to leave school after just one year of college play, whether they were considered lottery picks or not.
The NIL era has brought a huge shift in thought, and has actually brought some stabilization to the college game, while at the same time actually lessening the talent available in recent NBA Drafts.
With the ability to make money while in college, many players no longer feel the financial pressure to leave school and take their shot at the pros. While guaranteed lottery picks like Cooper Flagg are certainly not among those changing their mind, the fringe first-round players and especially those who could go undrafted are now opting for more experience (and more money) before taking that leap.
Players making money now instead of later is weakening the NBA Draft
As reported by Front Office Sports, the number of players entering the draft after just one season has dipped from 363 players in 2021 -- the first year of NIL - to just 106 players this year, which is the fewest since 2016.
Additionally, 51 “non-international” players opted out prior to the draft, which left just 32 non-international players remaining to be chosen.
When you consider a 70 percent decrease in that segment of players in just five years, it's easy to see why NBA scouts and executives are concerned.
NBA two-way contracts have a maximum value near $600,000, and G League deals start at in the $40,000 range. If you're from a struggling family and making no money in college, those numbers would look very tempting.
But now with the ability to accrue NIL deals valued in the hundreds of thousands or even millions while still in school, even those fringe players have no reason to risk leaving.
The result? A deeper more experienced talent pool in the college game, and (for now) weakened draft classes for the NBA.
For college fans, this is the news they've been wanting. The wash of one-and-done players at top programs like Kentucky, Duke, and Kansas made for nightmarish recruiting scenarios. Coaches found it difficult to build rosters with cohesiveness and a team feeling, as the majority of pieces seemingly changed on a yearly basis.
But now, many of the top coaches are left to simply replace the Cooper Flaggs of the world, while still being able to build a solid core of teammates around the star (provided they don't hit the portal, but that's another issue).
The one-and-done era may never be gone, but NIL has at least slowed the bleeding and given college basketball coaches a bit of respite from the yearly purge of early NBA Draft entrants.