Mark Emmert Rowed Back On The One-And-Done Rule Today

NCAA president Mark Emmert spoke at a public forum earlier today, and he said some surprising things about the one-and-done rule that prevents high school basketball players from skipping college and jumping straight to the NBA.

USA Today's Nicole Auerbach was at Emmert's talk, and shared the following quotes:

That's a startling departure from the stance that was taken by Emmert's predecessor, who advocated for high school players having to wait two years before being eligible for the NBA draft when he and David Stern first began working to implement an age restriction.

And yet, these comments aren't all that surprising. The NCAA is currently getting hammered on all fronts—see the bungling of the Miami investigation and the Ed O'Bannon lawsuit—and the arrival of a superstar freshman class in college basketball this year has resurfaced plenty of criticism about the one-and-done rule. With so many people angry at him for so many things, Emmert may be seeing the one-and-done rule as a place where he can scrounge up some goodwill.