By JOHN RIOUX

As March Madness continues on its second weekend of play, numerous players have life changing decisions to make in the upcoming weeks.

Declaring for the NBA draft and forfeiting the rest of your NCAA athletic eligibility is a personal decision that should be left up to the players themselves to make.

The news media make declarations that certain players should stay due to their physical maturation and skill, but often fail to recognize these athletes have earned the right to make the decision on their own.

Formulating an opinion for a player you know very little personal information about is a sensitive subject. You do not know their family’s financial situation or the player’s personal aspirations.

Urging someone to forfeit the guarantee of millions of dollars is not a decision that you should try and sway either way. If a player feels he needs time to develop before he makes the jump to the NBA, he and his family will come to that conclusion.

Those who earn the league minimum still make $490,180. Many professional athletes come from broken homes that are relying on them for support.

Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim was quoted saying, “you gotta be in the top seven eight, 10 picks to make sure you’re going to be playing in the NBA,” which is subjectively wrong.

The NBA develops players faster than the NCAA, as basketball becomes your full-time job.

While it is easy to write an article saying somebody should stay in college, put yourself in their shoes. If you were guaranteed to achieve a personal goal of playing in the NBA and get paid hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars, would you say no?