In the college-to-NBA transition, we take a lot of the particulars for granted. One of these -- that a college player forever forfeits his college eligibility if he stays in the draft past the June 15 decision deadline -- is sort of hammered home in our hamster-like brains. The wheel has always been in the left corner of our cage, and that's where the wheel is now. Don't disturb the wheel. It belongs in the left corner of the cage. Why? It just does. Please stop asking questions now.

Yesterday, in the midst of a righteous (in a good way) anti-age-limit screed, the inimitable Brian Cook shook the cage a wee bit, and my tiny hamster gourd is starting to think the wheel would look good somewhere else:

But who's saying we have to go back to that state of affairs? The reason basketball players lose their eligibility when they enter the draft is because they've opted into the process. Hockey and baseball players can be drafted without losing their eligibility because they don't have to opt-in; they're just automatically registered. Michigan hockey alone has thirteen NHL draft picks on its roster. [...]

The NCAA did change its stance before the one-and-done rule was instituted by allowing undrafted players to regain their college eligibility, but why not allow kids who get drafted to keep playing in college? Have them drafted, let them come into camps and play in the summer league, and if they're not ready, send them back for what Stein paternalistically calls "much needed maturity" -- mmmm racial subtext. (Stein's big argument is ... wait for it ... a two-and-done rule.) Clubs love stashing players in Europe for a year or three ... why not the Big Ten?

This is a great idea.

In many ways, college basketball is already the NBA's training ground. Almost everyone who plays big-time collegiate basketball is interested in playing for money eventually, whether in the NBA -- unlikely, given the sheer numbers of the thing -- or Europe, or the NBDL, or any number of far-flung foreign leagues where a mediocre, undersized Big Ten forward can become league MVP. (A.J. Moye; Iceland.) There is lots of elite basketball talent in the college game. There is also a lot of not-so-elite talent, players that would destroy you or I at even the most competitive of our pickup games but who, from the time they walk on a college campus, should know they have very little shot at a pro career in a two-round system.

So NCAA basketball becomes a two-tiered world. It forms castes. There are the coaches and the programs with the NBA talent. They compete on one level. Everyone else, the teams that have to recruit the shotless point guard who might contribute in his junior year, if he sticks with it, compete on another.

It's an argument for why we've seen such top-heavy NCAA tournaments since the age limit was set, but that's besides the point here. What does matter is that the "automatic registration" rule helps to alleviate this. If you expand the draft to four or five or six rounds, as Cook suggests, and NBA teams thus have the opportunity to draft a whole swath of players every summer, and thus have the opportunity to play them in summer leagues and camps and decide whether or not they're "ready," you're very near a problem solved. The best, most elite NBA talent can declare in high school but can still attend a college of choice if things go awry. The middle-level guys -- Luke Harangody, for instance -- can try its hand at the NBA each year without the pressure of a draft deadline. And the players that would never be drafted under the current system at least get the developmental benefits of a few more years in college without completely sacrificing their NBA dream.

It's not a perfect system. Sometimes we place too much emphasis on development in college; players can develop in the pros, too. But if we want to make everyone happy -- or at least get them to shut up for a while -- this is a good solution. It has the benefits of flexibility, freedom of choice for the best of the best and retention of talent at the college level.

And even better, the farce of the very best one-and-dones "attending school" and "caring about classes" and "maybe staying for that second year and being a kid for a while, golly gee"? That goes away forever. Like I said: This is a great idea.

(Note: Why the Ricky Rubio photo? No reason, really, except that I'm sort of obsessed with Ricky Rubio, and I wish he had come gone to, like, North Carolina for a year. [*Slobbers all over his keyboard.*])

Related: Big Ten Basketball, Getting Drafty in Here, Age limit and related madness