re: The flawed argument to stay in school and get a degree

You are the greatest ever. I wish I could come to your job and watch you work. That would be amazing

I get your point. But what about the players who sign up sign up for the draft, but they go undrafted. What about the guys who struggles to make a 53 man roster. What about the guys who aren't the superstars, so within 2-4 years they are out the league (which is the average NFL career.) For so many of these guys, once their careers are over and they ran through their NFL checks, they are left clueless and lost in the world not knowing what they are supposed to do.

I would love to see a statistic out on just how many people who graduate early goes back to finish their degree.

I have always thought it was an individual thing and you cannot make blanket statements with actually knowing the player. Maturity is a huge part of it. You have young men who are used to being the stars and playing all of the time. How will they handle being at the bottom of the depth chart. Also is are they physically mature enough, will an extra year of playing all of the time and the weight room have them better prepared or are they at a point to where they really won't get any better by staying in school so they might as well go even though they won't be in the top 3 rounds.

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A college graduate from LSU is lucky to find a job starting at 50k a year. To make 12 million dollars, that graduate would have to earn 100 k per yer for 120 years. To make what a third rounder would make in 4 years a college grad would have to earn 100 k for 20 years

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Really dumb way of looking at this. First of all, football players spend easily half if not more of their salaries on agent fees and taxes. So that $12MM immediately starts off at $6MM and the third rounder would have $1MM left after those fees. And if you want to get technical by taking the time value of money into account, then you have a guy who’s planning on living for about 50 more years after his career is over on a lump sum of $1 million to $6 million of money that’s steadily losing its purchasing power year after year.

So let’s look at it this way:

NFL draft early with no college degree and no intention of ever getting one:
$1MM lump sump followed by an annuity of $30,000 a year for the rest of your life (I.E. the average salary of high school grads)

NFL draft one year later with a college degree:
$750k lump sum followed by an annuity of $75,000 a year for the rest of your life, combined with the possibility of moving up in your company and making $100k-300k or more

Anyone who’s ever taken a finance class can figure out which one is worth a lot more. Going to college opens up many doors for athletes after their short careers are over. A few million dollars is NOT a lot of money to live the rest of your life off of, especially when you’re pressured to buy a nice car and house and support your extended family like most. NFL players are. The college route is easily the smarter way to go and that’s why like 90% of NBA players are dead arse broke within 5 years of leaving the league.

The one extra year of making NFL money doesn’t even come close to making up the money a college dropout loses in the long run.

And going to the NFL draft early doesn’t preclude making a frickload more money off of higher draft stock due to staying an extra year. Your assumptions are ONLY in favor of the guy who leaves early. Generally, it’s a lot easier to finish school when you’re 22 and single and going for free with a ton of tutors vs. 30, married, in debt, and raising kids and paying for school with no outside help.

And how many NFL players completely lose their asses over bad investments? In reality and for the purposes of having a good life, it’s generally a better idea to get your degree while you’re on scholarship. It certainly doesn’t hurt and your random scenarios don’t change that. Move along and quit throwing shite at the wall and hoping that it sticks