Should professional athletes be forced to go to college for a certain amount of time before entering the professional league is the question up for debate tonight. I had to think hard about what side I really was for with this topic. I was undecided until I did some more research on the topic and came to my conclusive stance on the topic. I believe the athletes should be made to go to college before entering their professional careers. I know, I hear the other side of this already, what if they get hurt, they are missing out on money, lives may change and they never end up playing pro. I have thought about the other opinion on this topic and I still stand firm with athletes going to college first. First off athletes coming out of college have no idea what kind of world they are getting themselves into. Young athletes fresh out of high school are seventeen to eighteen years old. They are still very impressionable and not responsible, and you want to hand them hundreds of thousands of dollars and expect them to be responsible with the money and their lifestyle. Going to college will give these young impressionable athletes a time to become responsible and actually grow up. These athletes will learn to become part of a team at their respective college and be given a chance to further their athletic careers by training in college. Athletes will learn how to manage stress, timelines, schedules, and how to deal with adversity all while using information they can use when their professional careers are over. An article by ESPN states that there is less than 3000 on field jobs between basketball, football and baseball. Many young athletes overestimate their talents and under estimate how unlikely it is they will make it big in the pros as stated by an article by Inside Higher Learning. Only 1.6 percent of DI football athletes make it to the NFL and only 1.2 percent of DI basketball players make it to the NBA. One big reason I stand for the act of athletes attending college before going pro is because they can use the knowledge acquired at college to be success after their pro careers. You hear so many stories about professional athletes careers ending and having no real world marketable skills or knowledge to succeed and end up broke.
http://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/8344785/young-athletes-degree-matters
Stu The Sports Dude 