If NBA rules are applied to the NFL draft, it would not only eventually ruin college football as we know it, but it will also make the NFL unbearable.

First of all, I do not like the whole lottery idea: a team that should have made the playoffs but didn’t should not have a chance at the number one pick. If a team only wins ten games (the equivalent of one or two NFL games), the first pick is the least you can do.

But the real problem would be dropping the requirement on number of years between high-school graduation and draft eligibility.

The rule is you are eligible for the draft three years after your high school graduation.

I do not find that to be so draconian that the courts have to step in.

There are three leagues that I can see a freshman, even one who cannot follow NCAA rules, playing in for two years and perhaps learning how to act in the process: the Canadian Football League, NFL Europe, and the Arena Football League.

But they’re supposed to be amateurs, many would say.

So are Olympians. Do these people complain when the gold medals come in?

I think not.

The NCAA definitely takes advantage of players. Football teams often fund athletic departments. This is how LSU works, for example. I’m fine with not letting athletic directors and college presidents exercise such control over athletes who are forced into the system.

Nick Saban has a good enough reputation in the NFL that people should willingly go to teams like his (and USC and Oklahoma, for that matter) to get better and learn how to be an NFL player.

But if they want to learn how to be an NFL player by going to the CFL (as former Heisman trophy winner “Rocket” Ismael did) or to the AFL (like Super Bowl winner Kurt Warner did), they should be allowed to do that too.

NFL Europe might not be the best league of the three, but it has teams in more attractive locations. I for one would rather live in London than in Edmonton or Iowa.

I think allowing these things would help clean up college football. Let’s face it: it is hard for a disadvantaged youth to follow every NCAA rule. He has food, housing and tuition.

But what if he wants to buy some clothes? He cannot go out and get a job.

Some 18-year-olds do not have the minds or the discipline for working toward a degree. That’s fine – they can go to one of these leagues and learn how to be adults instead. This will give scholarships (note the word “scholar”) to more people who intend to graduate or at least academically qualify.

The NFL will still have good players to chose from this way as well. And the best NCAA players will not start flocking to the pros regardless of age or classification.

It will have the positives of baseball’s farm system without marginalizing the college sport.

The NBA, on the other hand, is characterized by sloppy play and players who can’t handle having a coach. There is something wrong with that.

Part of the reason for that problem with the NBA is players leave the NCAA because of its rules and discipline (and strong-willed coaches) to become instant millionaires who do not care if they are fined $1,000 for missing practice.

If they had to go to the USBL for two or three years and compete with other players for a small number of jobs, NBA players would act differently.