They Are Running for Money, Not Glory

It figures to happen in the pro football draft that as many as 40 college undergraduates will toss their helmets into the ring, seeking employment.

An undergraduate is defined as one who has completed but three of his four years of service for the university, which staked him out, bagged him and nurtured him with mother’s milk.

Now the player departs a year short of his full tour of duty under a new pro philosophy that lifts all restraints on such action.

The NFL isn’t eager to draft these players prematurely. It is doing it becauses the players have lawyers. And the NFL doesn’t care for lawyers.

Everyone today has a lawyer. In the case of an athlete, he also has an agent, an accountant, a financial adviser, a personal chiropractor and maybe even a voice coach.

OK, what are the implications of colleges losing 25% of a player’s services they feel they have coming?

“The first loss is suffered by the player,” says Bill Rees, longtime football recruiting coordinator at UCLA. “He fails to get his college degree.”

All losses thereafter are suffered by the college.

“An immense amount of time and money is invested in the recruitment process,” says Rees. “This isn’t done to further the cause of pro football. Colleges are in business, too.”

Players keep reminding colleges of this, but the difference between college and pro would be that pro profits land in the pants of a promoter.

Technically, you could call a university a promoter too, but that’s a point bound to lead to debate.

“The most damaging aspect of drafting college players early,” continues Rees, “is that it affects mostly impact personnel--a Barry Sanders, a Bernie Kosar, a Keith McCants, an Andre Ware. Pros aren’t looking for just any player. Only the most premium of your guys are apt to jump, hurting your team in the season coming up.”

Of course, quite without restraint, college baseball players have jumped. So have tennis players, golf players and basketball players.

Magic Johnson, remember, came to the Lakers in his stroller, a child having just completed his sophomore season at Michigan State.

It’s a distressing truth, though, that amid the money mentality developing in sports today, loyalty to alma mater is a dated item.

The dough is sitting there--the player puts the arm on it. And the school must go to the bench to try to replace that impact player in what would have been his final year.

A pro owner, who doesn’t care to enter this dogfight publicly, tells us in private:

“There are two serious consequences to college stars jumping their teams to come into our league early. First, such a jump can destroy the continuity of the college team. And second, colleges trying to dissuade their stars from jumping may sweeten the pot, encouraging more cheating than already takes place.”

What the man is trying to tell us is, a campus hero threatening to take off may be turned over to a booster not short of cash. The booster will whisper to the kid:

“Look, you and I are American businessmen. Cool it for a year and I will make it worthwhile for you.”

If players given scholarships are going to flee to the pros in sizable numbers before their four years are completed, colleges may deal with the problem another way.

They may ask recruits, at the time of their capture, to sign contracts, binding them to their full term of eligibility. Thought has been given to this measure in the past, but it never has been implemented because of financial disadvantages to the college.

If a recruit brought in today turns out to be a turkey, the team can dump him, canceling his scholarship, which includes tuition and room and board. This comes to respectable money when tuition can run as high as $20,000 a year.

So the universities sit down to ponder their problem:

--They don’t want to waste funds on stiffs; the pros do a good enough job on this.

--Nor do colleges want to search for, and bring to gaff, recruits, train them and lose them to the NFL before they should.

Is any encouragement to be found in this issue?

Indeed. If players dump their schools for the NFL, it would follow that the pros are out-paying the schools.

This reaffirms your faith in our university system.