Typically when the top high school athletes in the U.S. choose a four-year school, it’s not a historically black college or university, and sports analyst Chris Broussard says that needs to change.
On Wednesday the Fox Sports 1 commentator spoke about the NCAA’s new rule for agents who want to represent NBA-bound college students.
Going forward, agents who want to represent NCAA-eligible players who are testing the waters of the NBA draft will need to have a college degree, undergo a background check, have professional liability insurance and they’ll also have to take a test at the NCAA’s office in Indianapolis, Indiana.
The guidelines have since been called the “Rich Paul Rule” after Rich Paul, who doesn’t have a college degree but is one of the NBA’s most successful agents.
Paul represents LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Tristan Thompson, Ben Simmons, Draymond Green and others. James, s*lammed the rule and he was far from the only one.
The way Broussard sees it, the guidelines are ra*cist, but at the same time they could spark a needed shift in how top black athletes choose their four-year schools.
“They’re calling it the ‘Rich Paul Rule,’ which is appropriate but I’m gonna call it something else: Straight up racism,” Broussard said in a video posted on Wednesday. “But instead of crying, complaining, and begging, it’s time for black people to take action. You f*ight power with power, and one of our greatest sources of power is our athletic dominance.”
“I know some of them are NCAA but at least the millions of dollars you generate would go to benefiting black people who are in dying need of economic empowerment,” said Broussard.
“So I’m calling on all of our great black football and basketball players, instead of going to these big universities that chew you up, spit you out, and don’t care about you, go to a HBCU, a Howard, Morehouse, Hampton, Xavier of New Orleans and many other schools,” he added.
He then spoke to professional athletes and told them to make their large financial contributions to HBCUs instead of those big schools they may have attended for just a short time before going pro.
And if that’s done, Broussard said it will allow HBCUs to improve their academic programs, as well as facilities.
A lot of people seemed to like his idea and fully agreed with it.
“I wish ALL the best black highs school athletes went to ONLY @HBCU because the wealth of what black Football and basketball players supply in @NCAA is benefiting the very colleges that once didn’t allow them to attend while @FAMU_1887 @Grambling1901 @HamptonU suffer!” one person tweeted.
“I am d*ying for just 1 top high school recruit to go to an HBCU just imagine if RJ Hampton went to Morgan State,” wrote someone else, referring to the 18-year-old basketball phenom from Texas who bypassed college to play professionally.
The “Rich Paul Rule” is racist. So what are Black people & athletes going to do about it? While I didn’t go to an HBCU, my parents & many other family members & colleagues did. Already an integral part of Black empowerment, HBCUs could become MUCH stronger! pic.twitter.com/zyZkg7wPyk
— Chris Broussard (@Chris_Broussard) August 7, 2019