So recently there's a lot of talk about how college athletes should get paid for what they do. We'll restrict ourselves to football/basketball stars for now, since the question is a bit more complicated for your 4th string backup guy though that guy probably isn't getting much money from the school to begin with. It seems like people always argue about how they get an education for free. But just because university education is overpriced doesn't matter when a star player brings value far in excess of his tuition. Since we're talking about a star player here, it's pretty likely that he isn't actually planning on having a non sports related job so the fact that he's getting a degree doesn't really mean much. Even if say you just made it to the pros for 3 years and then flame out and made a million dollars, I'm pretty sure you can go back and finish your degree with a million dollars. Now there's talk about how without a college education you might spend all your money stupidly and become poor, but I think that's a personal issue. I certainly don't remember in college they teach me stuff like: "If you have 50 million dollars and a random stranger ask you to give him 5 million dollars, don't do it." Someone in college is legally an adult and should know what to do with their money, and if not they can hire someone who knows. Sure you read all these stories about ex sports stars are now poor because they can't afford to keep their 25 cars and 5 houses running, but that's pretty much the same as say a guy who won the lottery and then wasted all that money. I don't think you can simply take a class like "Don't buy 25 cars just because you have millions" in college.
In fact this reminds me way back when someone like Andrew Luck chose to delay the draft for a year. He was scheduled to go first as a junior and his stock may drop in his senior year and they say that's easily worth a $10 million or so. Now in his case I think he still got picked first but there are also guys who aren't as lucky and dropped in stock. Invariably I always hear people like 'finishing education is good blah blah blah'. Sure, but your education isn't going to earn you $10 million in the first 3 years. It might not even earn you that much over your lifetime. Given pro sports, especially football, is rather volatile and a short career, it simply makes no sense to put off making money since you never know when you'll suffer a career ending injury, or even just a serious one that turns you from a star to a bench warmer. You can always go back and get an education after you retired. I'll gladly defer my college education if someone gives me even a million dollars to do so, let alone the amount these stars can be making. Even Shaq was able to go back and finish his degree after he retired.
In fact this reminds me way back when someone like Andrew Luck chose to delay the draft for a year. He was scheduled to go first as a junior and his stock may drop in his senior year and they say that's easily worth a $10 million or so. Now in his case I think he still got picked first but there are also guys who aren't as lucky and dropped in stock. Invariably I always hear people like 'finishing education is good blah blah blah'. Sure, but your education isn't going to earn you $10 million in the first 3 years. It might not even earn you that much over your lifetime. Given pro sports, especially football, is rather volatile and a short career, it simply makes no sense to put off making money since you never know when you'll suffer a career ending injury, or even just a serious one that turns you from a star to a bench warmer. You can always go back and get an education after you retired. I'll gladly defer my college education if someone gives me even a million dollars to do so, let alone the amount these stars can be making. Even Shaq was able to go back and finish his degree after he retired.
