When you’re 18 and out of high school, you are considered an adult. You take on responsibilities such as having the right to vote or serving your country in the military. So why shouldn’t an athlete straight out of high school be able to enter the draft for certain professional sports?
Both the NFL and NBA have eligibility restrictions on athletes coming out of high school. For the NFL, a player must be at least three years out of high school before that player is eligible for the NFL draft. As for the NBA, a player must be one year removed from high school and at least 19 years old during the year of the draft in order to qualify. There is no rule stating these players for both sports must be enrolled and playing for a college during the year(s) before athletes enter the draft.
These draft rules serve no purpose whatsoever. If an athlete out of high school is good enough to play at the professional level, then why not allow him to? Major League Baseball has no restrictions on players being drafted out of high school, and in the past 10 MLB drafts, five of the first overall picks have been players who just graduated from high school. The Olympics, no doubt the biggest competition of athleticism in the world, has a minimum age requirement of 16 to participate. Many athletes still in high school compete in the Olympics and win medals, performing better than their adult competitors. Why shouldn’t it be the same for the NBA or NFL?
Some say that with basketball and football the risk of injury at the professional level is too great for athletes out of high school. However, these athletes are not going to sit out for a few years until they are eligible for the draft. They are going to play at the college level, where the risk of injury is just as great as playing on the professional level. Others say playing at the college level before the professional level allows an athlete to mature and become more responsible before going to the next level. If that was true, then all athletes at a professional level should be responsible adults by the time they make it to the NBA or NFL, which we all know is definitely not the case. Clearly these draft eligibility rules need to be changed. At best they are not affecting the athletes in any way, and at worst they are harming the players.