The landscape of college basketball has completely changed since the adoption of the one-year rule, mandating players to play one year in college basketball (or in Europe, if you’re Brandon Jennings) before packing up and entering the NBA Draft.

Sure, the requirement has its opponents, such as Hall of Fame head coach and current ESPN college basketball commentator Bob Knight.

But the rule, which was put into practice after the 2005 draft, has worked well for all parties involved, including the coaches and fans of college basketball.

While Kentucky fans only have one year to enjoy the stellar play of John Wall and Eric Bledsoe, are any bluegrass fans actually upset at Calipari, Bledsoe and Wall for bringing back excitement and respectability to a previously banged up program?

I hope not, but if so, I’m sure plenty of teams would love to trade their senior-laden teams for one year of either of the uber-talented guards.

Sure, this has been a repeated theme, with three of the “Thad Five” exiting Columbus to the NBA immediately following a defeat in the NCAA championship game.

In fact, only one player from that famed recruiting class, resident senior David Lighty, remains on Ohio State team today.

Buckeyes fans everywhere consoled each other and wiped the tears from their young as the team only had one legitimate year to contend for the title.

Boohoo.

I doubt you would find any fans at the time questioning Matta’s recruiting strategy to recruit the best players in the country and forming one of the best freshman-laden squads ever to grace the hardwood.

And I even further doubt many would trade a shot at a championship, albeit the shortest window of opportunity this side of the 2004 Lakers, for a more consistent roster.

While it does drastically enhance the college game, it equally benefits the players themselves.

Don’t buy the whole, “If you’re old enough to go to war, you should be allowed to make money playing professional basketball” argument.

During the days of high school kids jumping straight to the NBA, the dropout rate of these “can’t miss” stars was alarmingly high.

Let’s just look at the last class of players deciding to skip college:

The 2005 draft featured nine players who made the jump from high school directly to the NBA.

Two of those nine are already out of the league, including Gerald Green, who was picked by the Boston Celtics with the 18th overall pick.

Additionally, while it may have been obvious that LeBron James and Kobe Bryant were going to skip college, it isn’t nearly as easy a decision for some other players, especially when you have millions of dollars enticing you.

While many making the jump have had all kinds of success, a significantly higher portion of those has had little to no success.

For every Kevin Garnett or Dwight Howard, you have far more Kwame Browns and Robert Swifts, players who ride the pine their entire careers or simply can’t cut it in the professional game.

The college game refines players’ fundamentals and teaches them maturity on and off the court.

And please don’t tell me you wouldn’t have liked to see Kobe Bryant carve up ACC opponents in a Duke uniform, even for only one year.

While players may have to wait one year before cashing in on millions of dollars in contract money and endorsements, forcing them to be the big men on campus for a year is hardly a cruel punishment.

It can even be argued the fame they enjoy in their college towns far exceeds the scrutiny and the what-have-you-done-for-me-lately kind of mentality that accompanies any professional sport.

While the NBA does care about its little brother — no not the D-League, but college basketball — it would not implement the rule if it didn’t additionally benefit themselves.

For the NBA, the one-year rule entirely changes the environment for rookies and curtails the five-year projects we have seen with Andrew Bynum and Dwight Howard.

NBA coaches can now focus on teaching these players intricate offenses and proper man-to-man defense rather than simply going through the busywork of teaching basketball fundamentals usually obtained at the collegiate level.

Rookies now come into the league and are immediately recognized by even the most casual basketball fans because those same fans were either strongly rooting for or cursing the players a year before in the true American pastime, otherwise known as office March Madness pools.

The visibility and exposure of a player like Kevin Durant coming into the league from the University of Texas is much higher than it would have been had he come straight from Montrose Christian School in Montrose, Maryland.

Sure, it’s unfortunate the one-year rule does not mandate these college basketball superstars buy into the academic world of college, but the one-year gap between adolescence and adulthood is severely needed.

Knight may never approve, but the rule creates significant buzz in the game of college basketball, readies future NBA players in a safe learning environment and all but reduces the frequency of words like “upside” and “project” on draft day.

Rightfully so, I think the rule is here to stay.