<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">The day Greg Oden and Kevin Durant stepped on their respective college campuses last fall, most of the basketball world assumed they would not be there in a year's time. They were right, and many believe they would not have gone to college for that one year were it not for the NBA rule passed in 2005 requiring American players to be a year removed from high school and at least 19 years old to be eligible for the NBA draft. The ramifications of that rule for the NBA and college basketball remain speculative, for the most part. A number of college coaches, however, recognize the potential for the rule has hurt the integrity of the college game. Now a player who arrives at college with no intention of playing there a second year before turning pro, can, in theory, do virtually nothing academically in his second semester as a freshman and remain eligible the entire season. In February, Texas Tech coach Bob Knight called the rule "the worst thing that's happened to college ball since I've been coaching." NCAA President Dr. Myles Brand, however, thinks the rule serves the greater good. "I'm not as much worried about the Greg Odens and those like him, the small number of elite players who could play in the NBA, which may be a single-digit number," Brand said. "I'm looking at the hundreds of thousands of others who think they can play professionally. I think it sends a message to high school students, even seventh and eighth graders, that if you want to play professionally, you have to prepare for college." </div> Source: SF Gate
I think it doesn't yet but it might in the future. Oden and Durant were exceptional people and did not seem to cause any problems. I think future college players may create problems for the NCAA and this rule might have to be altered.
