Frank Martin sounds off on recruiting scandal, paying players and one-and-done rule
Add South Carolina men’s basketball coach Frank Martin to the list of high-profile figures in college hoops voicing support for dramatic change in the sport.
But unlike other industry names, Martin isn’t just voicing dissatisfaction with the current system. He’s offering concrete proposals to change it.
Speaking Thursday for the first time since the FBI arrested 10 people in a far-reaching corruption scandal that has shaken college basketball, Martin addressed the role of his former assistant Lamont Evans and South Carolina in the scandal, but also hit on the most controversial topics in NCAA basketball today: the one-and-done rule, paying student-athletes and corruption in recruiting.
“The one-and-done rule ... absolutely stinks”
Martin was blunt in his assessment of the NBA rule that requires U.S. players to be 19 years old or one year removed from their high school graduation to enter the league’s draft.
“The one-and-done rule, which absolutely stinks – I’ve heard people say don’t blame the one-and-done rule,” Martin said. “Of course you gotta blame the one-and-done rule. Because that means that agents are meddling with these kids in high school, and yet, we’re made to be the bad guys when they choose to come to college for decisions that they made during high school.”
Martin is hardly the first person to criticize the one-and-done rule: Players have complained about it for years, legendary Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski has voiced support for allowing players to go pro directly out of high school, and even NBA commissioner Adam Silver and NCAA president Mark Emmert have said they think it needs to be changed, although they have not said what they think should take its place.
But Martin specifically attacked the NBA for imposing the rule and not working with the NCAA on it.
“I don’t know why college basketball gets blamed for manipulating the one-and-done rule. Whose rule is that? The NBA,” Martin said Thursday. “I don’t think I’ve ever said this publicly, (but) we need to protect our sport. If the NBA is not going to cooperate with college basketball ... then we, maybe, need to consider going back to freshmen ineligible and going back to 15 scholarships.”
Martin’s remarks reference a rule that existed in the NCAA until 1972 that prohibited freshman basketball and football players from competing on varsity sports. Debate on bringing back that rule briefly reignited in 2015 when both the Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences announced they were at least considering the idea, but nothing came from those proposals.
Under Martin’s plan, players who currently take advantage of the one-and-done rule would, effectively, be forced to stay in college two years or find some other way to spend their one season before entering the draft.
“Do you think college basketball survived because LeBron James did not play in college? I think college basketball is still OK,” said Martin. “That one-and-done rule has created a problem for us, because we have to recruit those players, but there’s stuff going on before they get on our campuses. ... So I say make them ineligble, then they don’t come to college. If they didn’t have the one-and-done rule, they wouldn’t be coming to college anyway, so why are we worried about it?”
Compensating student-athletes
Kentucky coach John Calipari, who has famously built his program into an NBA draft pick machine based on one-and-done players, said earlier this week that players should be able to earn income from their likenesses. On Thursday, Martin went farther, detailing a proposal to allow top players to make money off jerseys, merchandise and other uses of their likenesses.
“(Calipari), who gets credit for being the smartest guy in our business as far as being proactive, he stole what he reported from me,” Martin said. “I’m the person who’s the advocate, and I’ve been saying it for a long time that we should allow these kids to receive compensation based on their likeness, on uniforms, on autographs.”
Martin went on to say that profits from the use of players’ images should be split four ways – 30 percent in a fund for the player to access after he leaves the university, 30 percent for the university, 30 percent for the company that produces the merchandise and 10 percent to charity.
Martin said the fund for players should be deferred until they sign a professional contract or graduate without being convicted of a felony.
Calipari also said college athletes should be able to sign shoe deals with apparel companies, an idea Martin did not bring up. The role of major companies such as Adidas in the recent scandal, which included allegations of payments to direct recruits toward certain shoe companies, as well as lucrative contracts like South Carolina’s 10 year, $71.5 million deal with Under Armour to exclusively outfit its athletes and others like it, make such a proposal extremely controversial.
Recruiting and agents
One of Martin’s most candid comments on the bribery scandal came when he said, “any coach in this business that tries to act like they didn’t know there were some shenanigans going on the way that it was reported is not being honest with you.”
Issues of money in recruiting are nothing new, and the recent arrests do not mean every coach is corrupt, Martin insisted. However, he did call for college basketball to imitate baseball and allow high school players and their families to retain an agent to advise them before they enter the pro ranks without sacrificing any eligibility.
“Two years ago, I was completely against agents advising families. I’ve come the other side of that now,” Martin said. “But I also think kids should go out of high school. I’ve never budged on that opinion. I think kids should have the right to declare out of high school, and if they want to take money from a shoe company and agent, whoever, do it above board, do it the right way.”
Martin also addressed negative recruiting tactics, by which opposing coaches bad-mouth each other in hopes of deterring a player from going to a rival school.
“You negative recruit against me, I confront you on the road,” Martin said. “If I get facts that you’re using negative recruiting tactics, you’re speaking about me or South Carolina, I’m going to confront you on the road.
“When you negative recruit, you’re not impacting your family, you’re impacting my family. And any time you impact my family, my staff’s family, my ability for my university to succeed, that’s wrong. If you want to cheat, you’re impacting your family and your university. That’s your problem. You negative recruit, that’s impacting mine.”
Overall, however, Martin defended college basketball, repeatedly saying “the business is not broken.”
“We’re graduating players at a higher rate than any time in the history of college basketball. That means there’s more successful people going into society. There’s a lot of good in this business right now,” Martin said.
This story was originally published October 8, 2017 at 12:00 AM.