ROSEMONT, Ill. -- Northwestern athletic director Jim Phillips, chair of the new Division I council, voiced his opposition Tuesday to the one-and-done culture in college basketball, joining powerful voices that include NCAA president Mark Emmert and Kentucky coach John Calipari.
One-and-done play is symptomatic of the problems that plague college athletics, Phillips said at the Big Ten spring meetings, in that it does not benefit the student-athlete at large.
"Frankly speaking," Phillips said, "shame on us. We've allowed the National Basketball Association to dictate what our rules are, or influence what our rules are at the collegiate level."
Phillips said NBA executives "look at us as the minor leagues."
"Nobody feels great about kids going to school for a semester and then leaving," he said. "That's crazy. It's absurd. So we've got to fix it.
"Why have we accepted that? Why have we just allowed that to happen without any pushback?"
Emmert and Calipari spoke against one-and-done play last year at the Final Four.
The rule that led to the trend was put in place in 2005 as part of a minimum-age requirement in the NBA's collective bargaining agreement. The CBA expires in 2021, though the league or the union may opt out in 2017 -- possibly presenting a chance to renegotiate the age requirement in two years.
In addition to his comments on basketball, Phillips said Tuesday that the structure of college athletics needs a full review and an overhaul in areas.
"We've gotten to the point where it is time for a timeout," Phillips said, "and everything should be on the table. Nothing's sacred. Let's do the right thing for our student-athletes."
Phillips was elected this year to lead the council, which is tasked to run the day-to-day business of the NCAA's largest classification of 345 schools.
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