This Las Vegas Team Might Offer Top Basketball Prospects An Alternative To The NCAA

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A new alternative to the NCAA might be available to top basketball prospects very soon, and players would actually get paid to play.

A California group, according to the FOX affiliate in Las Vegas, wants to form a team in Sin City made up of top-caliber high school talent that would compete with European teams.

The Las Vegas Dealers — the proposed name for the team — would theoretically attract McDonald’s All-American stars who don’t want to play for top NCAA programs like Duke and the University of Kentucky. The average salary for McDonald’s All-Americans would be $700,000 a year .

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Yuck. Maybe throwing in some games against the Washington Generals will garner some interest.
 


Watch a bunch of all-americans play one on one against European teams, or watch the NCAA tournament. I'll choose the latter.
 

scher215 said:
Yeah God forbid 18 year olds get a job out of high school. The blasphemy!
Click to expand...

Good for them getting paid. I can't imagine the concept building up much of a fan base, though, as it would likely be in and out in a year before going to the NBA. Much better option socially than going to Europe and being the only American on a Euro pro team like a few others have done. I can't imagine most 18 year olds are mature enough to handle that radical a change in their life. The Vegas alternative gives them a nice hybrid of avoiding college, getting paid and not being dumped into a really hard environment for them.

If they are going to pay 10 18 year-olds $700,000 a piece, they are going to have get some nice revenue streams. It won't be coming from ticket revenue.
 


UNLV has to hate this. Findlay Prep could easily turn into a feeder for this team instead of UNLV.
 

Yeah the problem is how do you get the fan following to sustain it? I guess if the prospects were truly the cream of the crop you could get enough basketball fans watching on TV at least but anything short of having a host of 5-star legit NBA prospects on the team and there's not much reason to watch.
 

Give a bunch of 18 yr olds $700,000 and turn them loose in Vegas.......sounds fun.
 

Don't need fans if you get a Nike, Under Armour or Adidas to jump on board. Which they might, the shoe companies are already going after young kids through AAU.
 




Can't believe that the NBA would let this get any traction. Wouldn't be shocked to see the NBA reopen to high schoolers. The problem isn't the McDs AA types out of HS, it's all of the 19-20 year olds who can't make an NBA roster but have no interest (or, sometimes, ability) to go to college (as a legit students, anyway). Nobody is willing to give them 700K/yr. If the D league, as a minor league, was really a reasonable salary difference from the NBA nobody would be dreaming up these schemes to cash in on young talent for only a year.
 


I was thinking Clicks journalism. How could it sustain itself? Traveling across Europe is expensive beyond the absurd $700,000 salaries. But either, much, much cheaper salaries and a sponsor is a plausible reality and especially if the NCAA makes freshman ineligible. Without that you need at least 3 of the top 25 guys to say yes each year and that most probably would require big money to happen. But, maybe their salaries are paid by the shoe companies in exchange for future endorsements, but again, you gotta be a top rated elite player to qualify for that offer at a big number. They could get a tv contract etc It's feasible, especially if freshman are ineligible.
So, remind me, why shouldn't freshman be allowed to play in college?
 



Does anyone know if a "one-and-done" doesn't successfully complete the spring semester if it negatively impacts the school's APR? Not a big fan of early departure, but they should at least be passing classes both semesters.
 

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