With the explosion of women’s college basketball and the hopes that popularity will flow into the WNBA, one NCAA coach wants to proceed with caution.
The possibility that the WNBA could alter its eligibility rules to allow for “one-and-done” college players has Connecticut Huskies women’s head coach Geno Auriemma fearing for the future of the collegiate game.
Auriemma voiced his concerns on ESPN’s “UnSportsmanLike” radio program, saying:
“It depends whether you want the game to grow or you want to kill it.”
The longtime UConn coach had a stark opinion on the growing conversation about allowing talented women’s players to possibly skip the majority of their collegiate careers and go pro after as little as one season at the NCAA level.
Current WNBA Eligibility Requires College Graduation for Most
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As of now, WNBA rules mandate that prospective players are not eligible to be drafted unless they meet one of two qualifications. 1) A player must graduate college, or be within three months of doing so. 2) A player that will turn 22 in the calendar year of said draft.
With the talent level of the collegiate game advancing by leaps and bounds, voices are growing in volume that the current WNBA guidelines are obsolete and that the best NCAA players should be able to capitalize on their success without having to wait for their 22nd birthday or graduate from college.
The majority of the WNBA is comprised of players that went to a full four years of college, with few notable exceptions.
However, others have had spectacular freshman seasons only to suffer injuries that have hampered their latter campaigns. UConn’s Paige Bueckers, for example, was the 2021 national player of the year as a freshman. However, a torn ACL cost her the entirety of her 2022-23 season and some of her prospective draft momentum.
Bueckers gained a lot of that momentum back this past season, but the senior will stay with UConn for another season as her NCAA eligibility allows. She was qualified to enter last Monday’s WNBA Draft.
In spite of the possibility of a player’s freshman season being their best, Auriemma stands fast in his opinion that the current WNBA eligibility guidelines are best for the overall health of the women’s game. He told ESPN:
“I don’t know that our game can continue to move forward if all of a sudden our guys are gone. So I like the rule, and the players decided the rule. So if they change the rule, God bless ’em, but I think it’ll ruin the game.”
WNBA Eligibility Rules Determined by CBA
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Any chance of the WNBA eligibility rules being altered will have to wait a bit. The guidelines are hammered out as part of the collective bargaining agreement between the WNBA and the league’s players association. The current CBA, signed off on in 2020, runs through 2027. This present CBA does contain a mutual opt-out clause that could be exercised on by Nov. 1 of this year, but that would not terminate the current agreement until after the WNBA’s 2025 season.
As far as Auriemma is concerned, the current guidelines regarding draft eligibility need to remain in place for the foreseeable future to continue to properly cultivate the game. As the coach put it to ESPN:
“If you want to kill it, then let the kids leave after freshman year. On the men’s side, it’s become transactional. Everybody’s a free agent. Everybody’s a mercenary. It’s not the kids’ fault. … To me, what helped the women’s game grow is the people in Iowa got to grow up with Caitlin Clark. The people of Connecticut got to grow up with all of my great players. There’s something to be said for that.”
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Tom Carothers is a sportswriter with more than 20 years of experience covering sports at the high school, collegiate, and professional levels. Still longing for the return of his Minnesota North Stars, he has a high pain tolerance as a big fan of the Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Browns, and Tottenham Hotspur.
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