March Madness: The rules for players declaring for the NBA Draft, explained

The NCAA takes center stage every March with the incredible talent featured in the tournament, but many of those players will move on and become studs at the next level in the NBA.

You’ll probably be familiar with many names for years to come in this year’s tournament. Reed Sheppard, Rob Dillingham, Dalton Knecht, Jakobe Walter, Johnny Furphy. That’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Before those players move on to the next level, though, they have to decide whether to declare for the NBA Draft. Have you ever thought about how one might go about doing that?

Well, no worries. You’re in the right place. Here are the requirements for players who want to move on to the next level:

• The NBA’s collective bargaining agreement requires players to be at least 19 years old during the draft year.
• Players can only enter the draft twice during their careers. So when a player decides to make the jump, there’s a bit of wiggle room to change their mind.
• If a player goes undrafted during the process, they’ll still be allowed to return to school following the draft.

Declaring yourself for the draft sounds a lot more complicated than it is. On the men’s side, that’s all there is to it. Pretty simple if you ask me.