No amount of Old Spice, Axe body spray or visits to a local confessional will overcome the guilty pleasure that is enjoying NCAA March Madness “one-tourney stand” games.

Also known as “one-and-done theater,” games where freshman superstars are forced to play one year of college basketball before reaching full eligibility to play in the National Basketball Association are wrong on nearly all accounts - the one exception, of course, is their extremely high entertainment value.

Those freshman phenomenon players help fill the NCAA courts with a much-needed excitement-boost, overshadowing most upperclassmen (*insert Tyler Hansborough of North Carolina adoration and fan love notes here as an exception to this rule*) in popularity, talent and, according to many NBA scouts, professional potential (I shall call it “pro-po” from this point forward for no reason other than to mock the lazy “American way” of abbreviating everything, at every opportunity)

There is no mistake in the tremendous draw of watching freshman phenoms with plenty of pro-po to go around, O.J. Mayo of the University of Southern California and Michael Beasley of Kansas State, face one-another head-to-head in the NCAA tournament. Both players were highly recruited coming out of high school, so much that had NBA league commissioner David Stern not implemented a critical change to the collective bargaining agreement between the NBA and the National Basketball Players’ Association in 2005, both would be earning millions among the professional ranks.

Instead, Mayo, Beasley, Derrick Rose of Memphis, Eric Gordon of Indiana and Kevin Love of UCLA, play one year of what amounts to a college fundraising tour of sorts, earning money for everyone around them - college teams, divisions, coaches and sponsors - but receiving very little to keep in their own pocket.

In these “one-tourney stand” cases, the argument that the fabulous freshman are “rewarded with a free education” is null and void because even as much as sticking around their temporary college of choice may be appealing, passing up the chance to step into the pro ranks and immediately make millions is a temptation few can pass on.

If one of the main goals in attending college is to absorb enough smarts to venture into the working world and make good money, why would any government constantly promoting a system where individual wealth is celebrated deny any citizen their right to earn a living working legally?

Some of these young players use their wealth to turn their lives around after growing up in poverty. Families and friends are given a ladder to escape a debt and disparity. Some invest back into the economy, give back to the communities they either grew up in, or moved into by way of their work or travels and but are inspired to help (Warrick Dunn, anyone?).

Of course, there are those who blow millions-on-end on trips to Las Vegas, gambling and acting a fool (Charles Barkley, anyone?) as some young adults with more money than brains quite often do.

Who are we to judge how people spend their money?

Sure, M.C. Hammer went bankrupt after a few years on top of the world. If we had the chance to go back in time, should he not have been eligible to be a professional entertainer?

What about the participants who were victims of the Dot Com bust? Many made money quick but invested and spent poorly, and the floor fell from beneath them. Would an age-restriction have protected young, talented techies from falling flat on their face?

I say let the pennies fall, or grow, as they may.

Adults in America are responsible for their own actions. For every story of difficulty and downfall, we have others filled with hope and happiness. Aren’t most other career choices in life filled with the same?

Yes, there will be cases where some kid athletes are over-hyped coming out of high school and eventually fall flat on their face in the pros.

Isn’t the nature of investing in Wall Street similar? Invest your life savings! High risk, high reward! Lost it all? Ah, that’s the nature of the biz! Get up, dust yourself off, and get back on that horse!

Yes, there will be those same over-hyped kids who declare their eligibility for the NBA Draft, accept money and gifts from anyone ranging from sports agents to the tooth fairy, and end up hearing their name called in the draft the same number of times I hear mine every year - zero.

Aren’t college admission processes similar to this very situation?

The way to correct the problem is not to penalize the kid who will fall victim to over-hype - be it inflicted by their community, school, family or even their own - but rather, instead of clipping wings and revoking college eligibility if mistakes are made, leagues and colleges need to allow more flexibility.

Much too often in society too much focus is paid to penalization, when the world would be better off if more focus was spent on rehabilitation.

Many kids deserve a second-chance; maybe some do not. Sometimes falling flat often leads to a more “enlightened” point-of-view on life and its many opportunities.

Some people will receive lemons from life and turn them into projectile devices; some will make lemonade.

There are many excuses and conspiracy theories as to why the NBA and NFL have their age-restriction rules - league racial discrimination, protecting the youth from themselves, protecting the jobs of older leage players - and I “reject and denounce” them all:

League Racism
The majority of high school kids affected by the age-limit restriction rules are African-Americans. The majority of NBA and NFL players are African-American. The majority of players both affected and protected by this rule are of the same racial background, so…

Youth Protection
Some young persons who get rich quick are not quite mature enough to be responsible adults. Do we restrict lottery winners by age, too? Does Wall Street have an age-restriction? Where does the over-regulation of self start and end? As I said before, the best way to protect the youthful athletes is to pick them up if they fall. Rehabilitation over penalization.

Protect. Those. Vets.
Kids these days are bigger, stronger and faster. Call it a change in the tide, or a shot to the buttocks (speculate at your own leisure, folks!) but these days talent floods the streets similar to odors in New York City. Leave it to teams to determine whether they should keep veteran players around or draft “The Next…” Though I cannot imagine the scenario, I would only question teams if they started picking up youthful players in order to save money - similar to how some companies either hire migrant workers or export their jobs to places like India.

Whether or not the NBA and NFL have good intentions or not makes no difference. Citizens of this free nation have the right to earn a living working legally, and the two leagues are in violation with the Constitution and the aim of this free nation by holding those young players back from going pro after high school.

As an avid hoops fan, I benefit quite a bit — though nowhere near as much as colleges and conferences — from the restrictions Stern implemented. Because of the rule, this year I was able to watch Derrick Rose and Kevin Love carry their respective teams into the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament. Without the rule, I may have only seen the two get a handful of minutes as they played for horrible NBA teams, and never had a reason to be excited about watching them play. It is a great feeling watching highly-skilled college games, filled with NBA-talented kids competing where they have no business playing if they would rather be elsewhere - especially in the pros. A great feeling that feels so good, yet so wrong.

There is no sense in players being forced into college for a year and given restrictions on receiving benefits and gifts, while their schools and conference divisions reap millions worth of rewards as the over-hyped phenoms continue to put fannies into arena seats. What is the lesson learned here?

Many mocked the way Mayo recruited himself to USC because the way he went the process was so far-fetched, hilarious and absurdly “Outer Limits” - where down is up, up is down, and players recruit themselves to college and not the reverse, as tradition set - we cannot help but tune in.

What’s one more delectable, despicable, enjoyable, guilty pleasure to go around?