The NFL Draft VS The NBA Draft

National Football League commissioner Roger Go...
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The NFL and NBA drafts are often the most talked about and publicized events in professional sports. They certainly bring more media attention compared to other professional leagues like the NHL of MLB. So what makes the NFL and NBA so popular, with the best TV reviews? Is it just the brand name athletes? Whats more interesting to watch, the NFL or NBA draft?  Maybe, it is the style in which the drafts are being orchestrated. Lets break down the two different drafts to see what all the fuss is about.

First lets take a look at what allows one to be eligible for a draft into one of these prestigious leagues.

NFL- Any high school player who has been graduated for three or more years is eligible to enter the draft. Of course most players attend some form of college before they are ready to make the leap into the NFL. Players can also be drafted from other leagues like arena football and the CFL.

NBA- For the NBA  a player must be at least 19 years old during the calendar year of the draft. A player who attended an American high school must be at least one year removed from graduating high school. There are a number of restrictions for players signing with an agent and most of those are implemented by the NCAA not NBA.

Ok, so not that much of a difference there. Lets take a look at the length of the actual draft now, from time between picks, to time it takes to get through all the rounds.

NFL-The NFl draft currently is composed of 32 teams, lasts seven rounds, and plays out over a period of three days. The first round, which is obviously the most anticipated has a time frame of ten minutes between each pick.

NBA- The NBA draft currently has two rounds for 30 teams, and is over within the day. The first round for the NBA has 5 minutes between draft picks.

Well, there is obviously some differences here. More time to break down picks for the NFL, and quicker results in the NBA. in both instances I can see how you would enjoy breaking down the draft with more time to debate, and also I can see getting impatient to see what “your team” is going to decide. When it comes to your viewing pleasure we can call that one a tie.

So what sets the two drafts apart? I got it, it must be the draft format.

The NFL breaks down the picks like so:
Non-playoff teams 1-20
Eliminated in the Wild Card round 21-24
Eliminated in Divisional round 25-28
Eliminated in Conference Championships 29-30
Super Bowl losing team 31
Super Bowl Champion 32

The NBA breaks their draft picks down like this:
Missed Playoffs 1-14 (Draft Lottery)
Made Playoffs 15-30

Seems pretty similar, until you break down the draft lottery which can leave an team expecting the #1 pick with a #6 pick. Some people often feel that this system is pointless and probably rigged. Supporters say that the system is in place in order to keep teams from throwing games. The NFL draft rarely ever gets any complaints, most think that the way it’s done is as fair as can be, and perhaps most are right. Lets give the draft format victory to the NFL, based on the common thought that it has less chance for discrepancies.

Finally lets take a look at the players the two organizations are drafting.

With the NFL people can certainly be more attached to the players coming in. having seen them play for at least three years plays a major role , not to mention the fact that you can usually find contributions from everyone on a football team. Seeing a player grow over the course of his college career can give the fans a lot more to talk about.

When comparing this to the NBA and a large portion of the players being one and done, you don’t have much to base your opinion on at times. A player such as Kyrie irving, who is a projected Top 3 pick, has only been seen for, what, 11 games this past season? Not to say he won’t do well. But, often times you can see a top pick go off and not make any substantial contributions to the team that they are drafted to.

So which one is better? You can always continuously argue based on how a draft pick performs each year, but that is always subject to change. That is why I tried to leave out names because for everyone person that succeeds, there is one that fails, and vise versa. The NFL draft wins in my book when you place them side by side like this. Draft makes more sense, and the players you are watching seem to mean a whole lot more. Although at the end of the day it all comes down to being a bigger fan of the NFL or NBA.

 

This article was written by Anthony Benedict. By day Anthony helps to run and maintain AcneCentre.com. A Website that helps guide people to the best Acne products.

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