We live in an era of declining college attendance. Over the last ten years, college enrollment has decreased by around 1.5 million students, and the current graduation rate for a four-year bachelor’s degree is only 60 percent.
Part of the blame for this decline is placed on professional sports associations and their low age requirements, with some allowing athletes to join right out of high school.
The reasoning for the low age requirement is simple: coaches want younger players for strictly biological reasons. After age 30, the human body is in a state of constant decline, so the earlier you start, the longer your career can be.
The main argument for high school graduates going pro instead of attending college is that they can make more money playing for a professional association than they can in college through NIL deals.
Marvin Harrison Jr., for example, left Ohio State University after three years in exchange for an NFL rookie contract worth $35.3 million. The wide receiver was picked fourth overall in the first round of the 2024 draft earlier this year.
Some athletes choose to forgo college altogether.
The minimum age for an NBA player to be drafted is 19, meaning some high schoolers can choose to go straight to the pros after graduation. In 1995, Kevin Garnett was drafted right out of high school, starting a trend of bypassing college.
The MLB and NHL have similar age minimums, with the MLB drafting players as young as 17, provided they have a high school diploma. Connor Bedard was the first overall pick in the 2023 NHL draft at just 17.
It’s true that you can earn more in your first year as a pro athlete than you could in four years of college, but the average career length for athletes in the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB is less than six years.
The PGA is one of the few associations with a career length average of over ten years. New technologies have been integrated into golf equipment that keep the players’ abilities in mind, allowing them to continue playing later in life.
Modern golf clubs provide greater accuracy and further distance as players age. Even the golf balls are designed to have increased flight, precise launch angles, and the appropriate spin rate.
The Olympics have one of the lowest age requirements at 16, though in some countries athletes are eligible to compete as young as 13. The typical career length for an Olympian is less than ten years, similar to that of other pro sports associations.
The NBA has been known to recruit players out of high school, like Ed Curry, who joined at 18. Although he played in the league for 11 years, Curry has expressed regret about not attending college.
Tiger Woods was named in a 2021 CBS News list of the 50 most successful college dropouts. In the article, Woods stated that his biggest regret was not finishing his last year at Stanford to receive his degree.
Attending a four-year university, where you have the time and support to develop your athletic skills, can only help you on your path to the pros.
Being a student-athlete in college and completing all four years ensures you will have a backup plan if you can’t go pro or get injured while in the league. It also shows professional associations that you have experience and have reached your full athletic potential.
Some athletes get drafted into the NFL while still playing NCAA football. Having only a couple of years of college football experience could mean that the athlete has not reached their full potential in terms of strength, speed, and football IQ.
The NCAA emphasizes that their student-athletes’ educational experience is paramount. However, the creation of the transfer portal seems to diminish this claim because students are able to play at four different universities during their college career.
Between the complications of transferring credits between universities, GPA resets, and the “transfer shock” of changing schools, moving between institutions only decreases a student’s likelihood of graduating on time, if at all.
Earning your degree before playing in a professional league gives you a safety net to fall back on if you get injured. Forty percent of former NFL players felt that their injuries led to an abrupt end to their careers.
In 2023, 219 NFL players suffered concussions during the season, with an average of 1.6 concussion evaluations conducted per game.
With the constant risk of injury and the short career span of professional athletes, having a degree is a crucial safety net. Many athletes express regret over not finishing college, but none have said they regret earning their degree.