Big Ten And Their Massive Mistake Of The Readiness Rule

At the start of this past weekend, the Big Ten made people question what year it is with their consideration of a ‘year of readiness’ rule which would rule all freshmen ineligible in their first season of athletics.

The news was broken by the Maryland University student newspaper, The Diamondback, and Maryland president Wallace Loh had the following to say to paper:

"“If they do well because they spend more time, get more academic advising … their freshman year, they’re going to graduate,” Maryland president Wallace Loh told the newspaper. “And I think it’s worth spending an extra year of financial support to ensure that they graduate.”"

Various other coaches in the Big Ten had statements to say, as did other commissioners for other conferences, and they can all be found in this ESPN article, so I won’t go into the unnecessary work of copy and pasting them all out for you.

More from Big Ten

Instead, let’s just dive in and talk about how wrong of a decision this would be. First, let’s be honest that this would have the biggest effect on basketball and football programs. It hasn’t been since 1972 that freshman haven’t been allowed to play upon walking onto campus, and the sporting world, specifically college football and basketball, is better for it.

This is a different time and different world than in 1972, and the rules need to be different. When the freshman rule was abolished in 1972, dunking wasn’t allowed in college basketball and there was no three-point shot. College football didn’t require mouthpieces, shoulder pads, and lineman were not allowed to move more than five yards downfield under any circumstances. There was no Division I, II, and III.

Along with the evolution of the game, players and humans have evolved. Before, on most occasions players were not physically able to compete with older, more mature players. But do you really want to argue that Jahlil Okafor needs a ‘year of readiness’? Did Carmelo Anthony need a year to adjust to the college game? What about Herschel Walker? Adrian Peterson? Maurice Clarrett? The list goes on and on and on of players in today’s world who don’t need a year of readiness.

If the Big Ten passes this rule, they put themselves at a massive disadvantage on the recruiting trail. You can kiss goodbye the chances of landing one-and-done players like Greg Oden and Mike Conley, or more recently D’Angelo Russell (expected) and Noah Vonleh. According to Ohio State Athletic Director Gene Smith, only ‘1 percent’ of student athletes are one-and-done players, but those are your most prominent recruits.

On top of all this, there already exists a ‘year of readiness’ rule. Is that not what a redshirt is? For players who are not ready to contribute immediately or need a smoother transition into the college lifestyle, you redshirt them.

At the end of the day, it’s a silly rule that is long, long out-dated and would offer little to nothing of substance to the college game today.

More from Busting Brackets

Home/Big Ten