At last count by people who say they know such things (and as such, people neither to be dined with nor trusted), there are nearly as many underclassmen, both foreign and domestic, who have declared for the NBA draft as there are draft positions.

	Dan Dickau heads a crop of seniors that have become nearly irrelevant to the NBA Draft.

Many people, especially people on the college basketball company dole, see this as a crisis of society-shaking proportions. Underclassmen coming out early instead of developing their skills, causing coaches to be fired, ruining the nature of the college game and HAKKKKKGAAAAAAARRGGHGHHHH!

Or something like that, anyway.

NBA people also profess to be nervous because of this development, but NBA people would draft zygotes if they could get good enough scouting reports from the obstetrics nurse.

So what to do about this? Easy. End senior eligibility.

Look, the trend is clear -- NBA basketball is becoming more like gymnastics, figure skating and tennis every day. If you're 22, you're done. Get a clipboard, buy a suit, learn how to furrow your brow during time outs. You're flat past your sell-by date, and there's no use in pretending otherwise.

Since we know the league's talent procurement principles are based on three things (Can he shoot? Can he jump? Can he get a bicycle license?), it is perfectly predictable that seniors would become endangered. The lesson is, "Get out while you can, and let your tutor take the damned Medieval History pop quiz."

And since there is no legal way the league can keep underclassmen, high school students or Frankie Muniz from declaring for the draft, the only way out is to simply ban seniors altogether.

Let the colleges have them. You don't want 'em anyway. You took four seniors (out of 29 first-round choices) the last time you had a league-wide flesh-grab last June, and all the evidence suggests that the number could be even lower this time.

Not only that, the putative top choice, Jason ... er, Jay ... er, uhh, J ... Williams, a senior by academic measurements, is beginning to fall in many people's estimations. Maybe it was those free throws against Indiana, or maybe it was osteoporosis. At this point, only the scouts know for sure, and they're only confiding in anyone who calls and asks.

You lawyers in the crowd may see the ugly hand of restraint-of-trade here. You may say, "If it is illegal to restrict a young man from attempting to obtain a job because he is too young, it is therefore illegal to restrict an old geezer with a diploma of same."

And technically, you would probably be right. On the other hand, how do you think a judge would react if you were to try to stretch the age discrimination statutes to include 22-year-olds?

Never mind that. How would the AARP react? You want to agitate David Stern, fine, but mess with those people -- hah! They'd pick their teeth with your sharpened femur and then drive away in your car, throwing the empties out the window and flipping off the cops all the way to Arizona.

So the seniors bring nothing to the legal table. The NBA is plainly suspicious of them. The only thing left for them is college.

They play four years. They give their all to Old State U. They live at home with their folks like all other graduates do. They default on their student loans, or they get real lucky and play overseas, to fill the places left vacant by all the 19-year-olds who went to the NBA.

It's a hard life, true, but maybe shooting those extra free throws every day wouldn't seem like such a bad idea then, now would it?

This is simple Darwinism at work, and it will be corrected if and when 18-year-olds stop being the answer to the NBA's prayers. The NBA can't stop them from coming, and it doesn't even want to, but for those folks who long for the good old days when draft choices shaved, the hope remains that they'll all crap out for a couple of years, leave the league destitute and full of 66-64 playoff games and desperate to make Mike Dunleavy Jr. happy by not sticking him with the Clippers.

(Although if Dunleavy thinks being a Clipper is worse than being a Warrior, maybe he needs more schooling anyway).

Until then, though, let's stop gumming up everyone's draft previews with all these wheezy old goats who nobody but college coaches and former college coaches want anyway. The time has come to end senior eligibility, for their good, for our good, for the good of American society as a whole.

And now, here are some scores from the In Utero Summer League's first weekend ...

Ray Ratto of the San Francisco Chronicle is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.