I believe that the age requirement to enter the NBA or NFL should be 18. The rule that makes athletes go to college before going pro should not be a rule. An athlete that wants to go to the NBA has to be 1 year removed from college, and an athlete that wants to go to the NFL has to be 3 years removed from high school. This is forcing athletes who are not right for college to go for a year or two. Like Bob night said about the newly instated rule of players wishing to go to the NBA must be 1 year removed from high school, “It is the worst thin ever to happen to college basketball.” This is because some of these athletes are not right for college. They don’t even have to go to there classes to play in the basketball season, The NCAA tournament would be complete be the time they are declared academically ineligible. And if these athletes do not go to the 1 year of college their draft status would suffer an enormous decline. Sitting out a year or playing against lower level talent is not what NBA scouts want to see.
I believe that if you can sign up for the military or star in a pornography movie at age 18, you should be able to play professional sports at age 18. Sports like basketball and football can be played as soon as you can walk. You don’t see a 5 year old training for the marines or filming a porn movie. You do see 5 year olds playing sports. And what can a child go to the highest level in first. I will give you a hint. It is not sports. There should not be this requirement to choose your career. At 18 you are legal; for the most part you can do what you want. Who should be able to tell you that you have to go to college before you do what you’re the best at which is sports. Also being forced to go to college can cost the athlete millions and millions of dollars. What if say, Greg Oden, a player who was forced to go to college for a year had a career ending injury during his college basketball season, He would have been the number one over all pick in the NBA draft the year before. If he had a career ending injury, there goes his fame and fortune. There goes a $ 90 million Nike contract along with the millions of dollars from the contract with the team that drafted him.
I believe that the requirement to enter the NBA or NFL should be 18. Baseball players are entering the MLB straight out of high school, and soccer players are entering the MLS or other professional soccer leagues before the age of 18. Actors are on Broadway or in movies before they can talk. I believe if you can join the military and go risk your life in Iraq or be the next Jenna Jameson or Ron Jeremy on film at age 18 then a n athlete should be able to go to the highest level of his or her sport at the same age. There should be nothing stopping them from living their dream, their life and making their millions of dollars.