Undergraduates in NFL Draft Create Dilemma for NCAA

Record numbers of college undergraduates will exchange their scholarships for the more tenuous promise of the NFL draft this year, a trend disturbing to many collegiate and professional authorities. There are a variety of specific causes, but the overall ones may be the impatient nature of 20-year-olds, and the agents who murmur to them about salary caps and six-figure contracts.

Eight prominent college football players with eligibility remaining have announced they will forgo their final seasons and petition for early entry to the NFL draft. Agents and league officials predict that 15 to 35 could declare that intention by the April 9 deadline, and Heisman Trophy winner Andre Ware of Houston may be one. He acknowledged in a telephone interview he is rethinking his decision to return to school.

“The main thing in most players’ cases is the ability to give your family financial stability for a long time,” Ware said. “That and the fact that every young man who lives in the U.S. has a dream of playing in the NFL. Some just feel it’s their time now. But it’s a big decision and I’m not in any rush to make it. I’d like to hear some things. See who’s interested.”

The potential flood could cause the NFL to set aside its rule barring players who have not completed their college eligibility from entering the draft. While the league does not want to be seen as encouraging underclassmen to leave early, the rule probably cannot withstand legal challenge. No underclassman has challenged it thus far, but legal experts see the rule as vulnerable to anti-trust law. The NFL routinely has granted exceptions to players, unwilling to be tested in court.

The NCAA also could make a rule change, to allow players to preserve eligibility while exploring the draft. NCAA Executive Director Dick Schultz favors such a move, but he also said the decision to come out is potentially “a real disaster” for some athletes. The NCAA and NFL are holding talks to determine how best to grapple with the issue, which Schultz calls “a double responsibility.”

One force that seems to be driving players into the marketplace is the threat, oft-repeated by agents, of an NFL salary cap for rookies by 1991 or 1992. Fearing that waiting a year could limit their earning potential, some have decided to cash in now. Another reason is the success of Barry Sanders of the Detroit Lions, who petitioned for early entry after winning the Heisman as a junior at Oklahoma State and became the NFC rookie of the year.

What those influences translate into, simply, are dollars and fame.

“I think I’m ready for the big league,” said Georgia running back Rodney Hampton, one of the earliest to announce. “It depends on how tough you are. . . . And sure enough, everybody wants some money.

What many undergraduates may be overlooking is the cost of miscalculating their worth. The NFL Players Association and even several agents are issuing widespread cautions in an attempt to stem the flow.

“I think absolutely some kids will make the wrong decision,” said Sanders’ agent, David Ware of Atlanta, who contends his client was an exception. “Teammates, agents, and in some cases even their mothers and fathers are telling them, ‘Go ahead.’ And they won’t be picked highly at all.”

A few facts if life: According to the NFLPA, only 35 percent of the league’s players have college degrees. And the average career span of an NFL player is less than four years.

The NFLPA also has found that the career of a player with a degree is 50 percent longer than one without. And the average salary of a player with a degree is 16 percent higher than one without.

The reason, according to NFLPA director of research Mike Duberstein, is that NFL players are asked to spend considerable time in classroom situations. In the constant meetings, film sessions, etc., they are asked to absorb more technical information than they encountered in college.

“The difference in NFL talent is minimal,” Duberstein contends. “But the difference in intellectual capacity is not. Those with degrees have a little more mental acuity and discipline.”

There also are short-term financial considerations for underclassmen. Duberstein maintains it is only sensible to enter if a player is an assured first-rounder. At this point, only linebacker Keith McCants of Alabama and running back Emmitt Smith of Florida can claim that status. USC linebacker Junior Seau is a likely first-rounder, as is Ware, if he comes out. But no one else can be sure.

Just 28 players can be first-round picks. There are roughly 80 players who either consider themselves or are being told that they are first-round material, which means several juniors could go as low as the fourth round.

What that also means is that NFL teams may acquire some first-round talent for fourth-round salaries in what some are calling potentially the deepest draft in years. “It makes absolutely no rational sense to come out and be a fourth-rounder,” Duberstein said.

So why risk it? In some cases a belief in their talent, in others financial hardship. For a few, the NFL offers longtime security and might make more sense than returning to college and risking injury.

The process of evaluating their standing is painstaking and sometimes misleading. They can only ask others’ opinions, as Andre Ware is doing, seeking advice from Houston Oilers quarterback Warren Moon and NFLPA Executive Director Gene Upshaw among others.

“Someone can tell you one thing and think the opposite,” Ware said. “A team can pass on you, and suddenly your worth goes way down. . . . A lot of it’s instinct. You just have to try to sense what they feel about you.”

Ware has the advantage of being in good shape academically, just 18 hours short of graduation. “I can do that in a spring and a summer,” he said, “And I’ll do it no matter what.” The salary cap is in his mind, “but it’s not as dramatic as you might think,” he said.

At Southern California, safety Mark Carrier is less certain of his value. The NFLPA has told Carrier he will be gambling and he is ambivalent. As for agents, he said, “They’re going to tell you you’re first round.” Carrier is just two classes from obtaining a degree, and may return to USC to play while attending graduate school.

“It’s a business, a profession, and you take on new responsibilities,” Carrier said. “Bills, notes, mortgages. I’m not accustomed to any of that. I’ve lived a nice, sheltered college life. And you start to appreciate that.”

West Virginia quarterback Major Harris will make an announcement next week that he is turning pro, sources said. His reasons, according to a confidant, are almost exclusively financial. His mother, Sandra, formerly worked in a steel mill in Pittsburgh and receives disability because of a bad back. He is the youngest of five children.

McCants, when learning that he could potentially be the first player picked, also opted for the financial considerations. “I’m just doing what’s best for my family,” he said. “I’m not leaving because I want to. I have to do this.” McCants is two years from a degree.

Smith of Florida had several reasons to return to school: He would have been a leading Heisman candidate and never had won a championship of any sort. Instead he cited the potential salary cap and the high esteem he is held in. “This past season has helped me increase my stock and I don’t want to risk decreasing it,” he said.

John Mackovic, former head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs who now holds the dual role as Illinois’ coach and athletic director, is a vehement opponent of early entry. He maintains most underclassmen lack maturity for the NFL both physically and emotionally. He is adamant that their reach for short-term financial gain is wrongheaded.

“It’s very simple to say, ‘Let’s take the money now,’ ” he said. “And yet we are constantly reminded of our earning power at 40 (years old) in this society. I hate for young people to forego the opportunity of earning a good living at 40, just for the chance of earning a living at 22.”

Mackovic, who is waiting for junior quarterback Jeff George to make the same decision, doesn’t object if a player needs to protect his value and can make the kind of money that means long-term security. That was the case with Sanders, who signed a five-year contract worth $5.9 million. George could be one of the first quarterbacks chosen, and Mackovic is acquiring as much information as possible for the player.

There is little empirical data to support the maturity argument, particularly among skill players. In fact, there are examples of players who came out early with great success, from Bernie Kosar to Craig “Ironhead” Heyward.

But Mackovic counters by pointing to the example of Sanders’s brother, Byron, who gained more than 1,000 yards for Northwestern in 1988. His experience was more typical. He chose to leave school with a fifth year of eligibility remaining and no degree. He was selected in the eighth round by the Chicago Bears, and was cut. He recently re-enrolled at Northwestern.

“They ought to address both Barry and Byron Sanders,” Mackovic said. “The reality is the stark contrast.”

The lack of motivation by NFL-bound college football players to earn degrees may be lamentable. But it applies to all athletes, not just college football underclassmen, and some contend it is a separate issue from the legal and economic ones.

Agent Leigh Steinberg contends the NCAA can’t hope to legislate academic goals for athletes. And it is hardly the primary interest of the NFL. Neither group can force an athlete to stay in school for four years, and most players are now taking five or more years to get degrees anyway, if they have the desire at all.

“There’s no natural connection between attending school and the ability to play pro ball,” Steinberg said. “The two concepts don’t flow together.”

Frequently the agent is blamed when an underclassman chooses the draft. Under the current rules, some athletes have been known to accept money to purposely sacrifice their eligibility and gain entry to the draft. For that reason, agents would be relieved to see an unrestricted draft, which would make their roles less suspect and would place responsibility on the players.

“The messenger is being blamed for bringing the message,” said Sanders’ representative, David Ware. “ . . . Blaming agents is like blaming a street that’s wet because of the rain. Agents are hardly the problem. It’s that these kids don’t have enough information.”

Steinberg contends that not only is a free flow of underclassmen to the draft inevitable, but that it could have a positive effect on college football and the NCAA. Legitimizing a free flow would mean a more open acknowledgement of a student athlete’s lack of classroom motivation, and perhaps a truer college game.

“I think it could have a cleansing effect in alumni and agent transgressions,” Steinberg said. “Right now we have a number of student athletes with no interest or academic proclivity. They’re serving time. Those are the ones who are most open to taking money from agents and alumni. Because they resent being there.”

The NCAA’s Schultz, for one, agrees with the point. He would like to see an NFL draft similar to that of Major League Baseball, in which players may be selected without having to formally declare they are relinquishing amateur status. The NFL is expected to do something--Commisioner Paul Tagliabue acknowledging the need to relax the rule. The question is what.

“The commissioner has said he feels it’s important to set some standard,” league spokesman Jim Heffernan said. “But he hasn’t said we’ll take anybody that walks in.”

Other options: a two-phase draft, adding one for juniors unsure whether they want to turn pro. Penn State Coach Joe Paterno has suggested NFL teams should offer contract incentives for players to obtain degrees. Schultz too is unsure of how it may be resolved.

“Our position is an athlete has the right to leave anytime he wants,” Schultz said. “The thing is, a lot of kids come out for the wrong reasons. He doesn’t make it, he has no eligibility, and he can’t afford to go back to school. It can be a real disaster. We just want to make sure they stay or leave for the right reasons. I’m not sure what arrangement can be worked out. It’s very sensitive, very touchy.”

The NCAA could shoulder the burden by allowing a player to test his worth in the draft, but return to school if he decides his value is too low. An NFL team would not give up the draft pick unless the player signed. But at any rate the NCAA cannot do anything until its convention next year, so it appears there will not be an easy resolution. “The point to all this is that we all wish and hope every young athlete would also like to be a scholar, matriculate and prepare for life after sport,” Steinberg said. “The reality is, that doesn’t happen currently.”