As Sarah Sturdy ruled the South Carolina frontcourt all the way through UConn’s nationwide championship victory, gobbling up rebounds, protective the rim and scoring from in all places at the court docket, it used to be simple to consider her additionally doing so on the after stage. WNBA executives needed to be drooling over the speculation of drafting the after Huskies famous person.
However they’ll have to attend every other 3 years. Below the collective bargaining contract, which expires on the finish of the 2025 season, American-born avid gamers are eligible to be drafted next finishing 4 years of school. The only exception is that avid gamers can claim next their youthful seasons in the event that they flip 22 all the way through the calendar time of the WNBA Draft. Since Sturdy has a February birthday, that gained’t be an possibility.
As ladies’s basketball booms, avid gamers have extra possible choices in shaping their careers, whether or not that’s in school by means of the switch portal or professionally with unused leagues. On the other hand, that is one resolution that rest out in their keep watch over.
“I definitely think we should have the option,” USC famous person JuJu Watkins stated at the “Good Game with Sarah Spain” podcast. “There’s just been such a growth in college basketball, where it’s like, why would you want to leave? Because you’re able to have that experience and build your brand here in college as well. I would say we should definitely have the option, but I think college is a way to prepare us for the pros as well. … It’s a touchy subject, but I’m for it.”
Despite the fact that a transformation to permit avid gamers to claim early is not likely, plethora underclassmen are tempting professional potentialities at the moment, headlined through Sturdy. Watkins, who has two extra years of eligibility, could be a no brainer lottery select, even with a torn ACL that might secure her sidelined for this next WNBA season. Madison Booker of Texas has a WNBA frame and pull-up recreation, and her fellow SEC avid gamers Ashlyn Watkins (South Carolina) and Talaysia Cooper (Tennessee) additionally may well be pro-ready.
There’s an international the place JuJu Watkins comes to a decision to sit down out the next season, the use of either one of her ultimate years of eligibility, and enters the 2028 WNBA Draft that includes Sarah Sturdy.
In the event you had been a GM with the Refuse. 1 total select, who would you select? pic.twitter.com/AUixhKz3oc
— I communicate hoops 🏀 (@trendyhoopstars) April 11, 2025
The speculation of the day restrict has traditionally benefited maximum events, although it decreased person participant company. The WNBA is already the toughest league on this planet to produce and earn a 2nd commitment in, and it doesn’t behoove the stream participant puddle so as to add extra competition for the restricted roster spots.
Till not too long ago, participant enjoy used to be higher in school than within the WNBA. It frequently didn’t produce sense for athletes to sacrifice the power to earn a faculty stage to pre-emptively tie a league that didn’t pay that smartly. Sure avid gamers however took good thing about the chance to exit professional next 3 seasons, together with Refuse. 1 alternatives Jewell Loyd and Jackie Younger. Satou Sabally, the Refuse. 2 select in 2020, cited funds as the rationale she left Oregon early, as she used to be in school ahead of athletes may produce cash.
Overseas-born athletes don’t need to offer with the similar age-related constraints as their American opposite numbers. Gamers born outdoor the U.S. can claim for the draft the time they flip 20, supplied they don’t attend school within the NCAA gadget, possibly to be able to incentivize skill all over the world to play games within the WNBA. The ones concessions have by no means been made for American avid gamers, who already develop up dreaming of taking part in within the league.
Now the WNBA has higher lodging, extra profitable salaries and a better profile, however school sports activities additionally trade in cash from collectives and the power to make the most of NIL do business in. Athletes are not lacking out on their incomes doable through being denied early access into the pro ranks.
The league advantages from the day restrict as smartly. Along with freshmen being extra bodily suited to the professional recreation, the NCAA is an implausible advertising software for the WNBA. Gamers come into the league with 4 years of nationwide publicity and oodles of brand reputation. Regardless that fickle NBA enthusiasts aim to spot one-and-dones, maximum WNBA enthusiasts are in detail ordinary with the likes of Paige Bueckers, Aneesah Morrow and Hailey Van Lith ahead of they even play games their first skilled recreation.
Consequently, even supposing a unused CBA is being negotiated, don’t be expecting the day restrict to be some extent of competition.
“It has been mentioned; I don’t think it’s a high priority,” Seattle Typhoon barricade Lexie Brown stated on “The Ringer WNBA Show” endmost time. “Going out into the world at 18, 19 years old as a young woman with no degree to go play a sport with nonguaranteed contracts, it’s kind of a recipe for disaster.”
There’s a affordable dialogue available about whether or not Bueckers would be the No. 1 pick if each and every participant in school this season had been draft-eligible. Sturdy’s total recreation, mixed together with her adolescence, in a league that also runs throughout the put up, makes her a tantalizing variety. Watkins’ prodigious talent and famous person energy put her in that hypothetical dialog as smartly.
For now, this workout rest theoretical. Faculty basketball remains to be a extra pervasive product, and the WNBA can come up with the money for to stay unique and alike its doorways to more youthful avid gamers with all the skill that already exists inside its ranks. The subset of avid gamers who may realistically produce the soar early is proscribed — too little to rewrite a whole algorithm for.
(Footage of Madison Booker and Sarah Sturdy: Alex Slitz / Getty Pictures, Joe Buglewicz / Getty Pictures)
