Whether Ovinton J'Anthony "O.J." Mayo knowingly violated numerous NCAA rules or didn't break the first one during his single season at Southern California, the more important issue at hand is the NBA policy that prohibits most high school seniors from immediately entering the league draft.

After two years, it's clearer now than ever that the doctrine is working only to the benefit of the NBA while placing college programs in harm's way.

Innocent or guilty of allegations that he accepted thousands of dollars and expensive gifts from agents, Mayo has become the most recent poster child of the so-called "one-and-done" college basketball movement.

Again, Mayo may have done nothing wrong. That's certainly the stance he is taking. More pertinent, however, is the environment that's been created for the sort of mayhem he's accused of having inflicted on the school.

With Mayo rated among the most talented high schoolers from the day he entered the ninth grade, there's a decent chance he didn't want to attend college at all. Like a handful of similar players each season, he was virtually sentenced to one year of college servitude by the NBA Draft-entrance age threshold. That's not just bad legislation. It's also the most fertile soil imaginable for breeding college players with no regard for what now passes as amateurism.

By some accounts, Mayo was marginally corrupt -- more likely corrupted by gift-bearing vulture agents -- long before he enrolled at Southern California, meaning there's an argument to be made that Trojans coach Tim Floyd sped through countless yellow flags before Mayo was offered a scholarship.

But by the same token, Floyd was hired to win games and successfully compete against monolithic city rival UCLA. With Mayo averaging 20.7 points, the Trojans finished 21-12 and received an NCAA Tournament bid in 2007-08.

Floyd may have dabbled with fire. If so, he and his school now may have to suffer the consequences. The Los Angeles Times has reported that Floyd's top recruit for 2008-09, guard DeMar DeRozan, could ask for a scholarship release should the Mayo quagmire result in NCAA penalties. DeRozan's high school coach has been quoted as saying North Carolina, national champ Kansas and Memphis, among other schools, already have inquired about DeRozan's potential status.

While that ramification could wind up being good for the Tar Heels, it's awful for college basketball. That's the sour fruit of the one-and-done culture.

The real culprit isn't Mayo. Even at age 20, he's still just another kid praying to trace the Michael Jordan path. No, the bad guy here is NBA commissioner David Stern, who hammered out the agreement with the players association that instituted the ban on high school seniors entering the draft.

At the very worst, Mayo was guilty of accepting money and gifts. Among the most pious of us, who makes a habit of saying "no thanks" to money and expensive gifts? And as for Floyd, need we even guess about his fate should he make a habit of going 12-21 rather than 21-12?

But the NBA and Stern have no excuse for peddling poison. The age rule was adopted to keep talented young players off NBA benches but in the public spotlight as collegiate stars for a year or two. It's that simple. On a good NBA team's roster in 2007-08, Mayo would have been on television no more than a handful of minutes each game. At Southern California, he became a media fixture for a few months.

So who wins from such a twisted exposure strategy? Well, heck, the NBA obviously. Mayo has become a sports celebrity, possibly by his own design. Lots of people may even watch the league draft just to see which team welcomes him and his baggage aboard.

Southern California, on the other hand, is left to climb out of a snakepit.

The right thing to do here is the right thing to do for the sport, and not merely what's best for the almighty NBA. Stern and the players association owe it to the game to either clone the baseball rules or go back to the days when all high school seniors were allowed to enter the draft.

By far, the baseball blueprint works best. There, all high school seniors either can sign pro contracts immediately or are forced to duck the draft for three years. It's not as though the undrafted baseball players are exiled for that time, either. Most just have to go to college and deal with the required academic eligibility demands.

This is not molecular relocation research. It's no more complicated than product quality control. You would think the NBA's billionaire owners could grasp that concept without having to turn some of the country's most prestigious colleges into lab rat experiments.