Why Not Go Pro?

[rainmaker]

Originally posted by SMEngmann
Most student-athletes that I know take their academics very seriously, although I agree that basketball and football players may be a bit more lax. That, however, is a commentary on the individual and not the system.

I think you're right for sports in general. I've known several teen-agers who used a sports scholarship to get a good education and go into another field after college. In the high profile sports, I think it's very difficult to pull that off. A friend of my daughter's competed in gymnastics for Oregon State when they were in the top five teams in the country. She was very very good. And she took her academics very seriously, knowing there was no professional career in the future, and that she'd need other skills. It took her five and a half years to graduate. One of those years, she didn't get scholarship money and had to ask her parents to pay. It's just the way it was. I expect it's even harder if you play basketball at Duke, or football at Michigan (some years) and so on.