Ryan Donato went from Harvard to playing for the Bruins in a matter of days. (Getty)

At 10:25 p.m. Friday, Ryan Donato and the Harvard hockey team had their season end with an overtime loss to Clarkston.

At 7:12 p.m. Monday, Ryan Donato took the ice for his first shift as a Boston Bruin.

From college athlete to professional athlete in just 68 hours, 47 minutes for Donato, who gave up returning for his senior season next year at Harvard to join Boston’s current chase for the Stanley Cup.

“Life moves fast,” Donato said Monday on the Bruins’ pregame show on NESN.

Fast, but not uncommon, for hockey. That’s the system. It works. It sounds bizarre when viewed in the context of basketball. Imagine, say, Deandre Ayton getting drafted in 2017, playing a year at Arizona anyway, and now that the Wildcats have been bounced from the NCAA tournament, joining the NBA team that picked him for a late season and/or playoff run.

The NCAA should consider it the standard for all of its sports and the NBA should examine it as well.

Basketball is engulfed in scandal after a sweeping federal fraud case last year led to the arrest of 10 men and rocked college athletics. It prompted the NCAA to create an independent commission chaired by former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to offer suggestions on reform. Likewise, the NBA is reviewing its procedures, including the elimination of the one-and-done rule for draft eligibility. The problem is age old: this is a sport that too often eats its young talent.

If nothing else, someone should address why Ryan Donato can play NCAA hockey last week and NHL hockey this week, but basketball stars can’t even dream of such a thing.

There are different rules for different sports, not merely in how the NBA and NHL do it, but even how the NCAA does it too. Not every student-athlete is treated the same.

Donato was drafted by Boston in June 2014, when he was 18. After a year of prep school and another in junior hockey, he enrolled at Harvard, where he played for his father, Ted. The Bruins retained Donato’s rights all along. Meanwhile, NCAA rules allow drafted hockey players to maintain their college eligibility as long as they haven’t signed a contract.

Additionally, hockey players are allowed to retain a sports agent to negotiate with a professional team as long they don’t receive anything of benefit from the agent – other than the valuable career advice and potential contract negotiations, of course. They can’t technically sign with the agent either, but that’s distinction without a difference. If the agent gets the player a deal he finds beneficial, the player will turn pro and “hire” the agent. Otherwise, he will stay in college. It’s a handshake agreement, not a written one. (Baseball players enjoy similar freedoms, courtesy of both MLB and the NCAA.)

View photos Could you imagine Deandre Ayton joining an NBA team now to help down the stretch? (Getty) More

Donato, who turns 22 next month, played three seasons at Harvard, including a star turn this winter with the U.S. Olympic team. Then he decided to head to the NHL. He signed a two-year, entry-level deal with Boston on Sunday.

In contrast, the NBA requires amateur players to declare themselves eligible for the draft. The NHL doesn’t – everyone over 18 is available to be drafted.

Then the NCAA comes in. By declaring for the draft (athletes have until 10 days before the NBA draft – June 11 – to back out), NCAA rules state that a basketball player loses his college eligibility even if he doesn’t get drafted.

As for agents, players can talk to them, but they can’t be represented in any negotiations. The professional advice hockey players are now free to enjoy is not allowed.

Why the disparity?

“Professional leagues determine the rules about their own drafts,” NCAA spokesperson Stacey Osburn said. “In the NFL and NBA, players have to deliberately submit their names to the draft, whereas in baseball and hockey, students can be drafted without formally entering into the draft process. NCAA members have taken those differences into account when considering eligibility for drafted student-athletes.”

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