Go Pro or Not

Every year, dozens of student athletes have to make the decision as to whether or not they should go pro or stay in school. According to the book "Lessons of the Locker Room" by Andrew Miracle, 4 out of every 100,000 white males will be playing a professional sport after college. And there are also three times more African-Americans practicing brain surgery then they are in the NFL. That’s only 1 percent of Americans that will go pro in sports. So it’s obvious now that you have a better chance of winning the lottery then making it pro. For a college athlete to focus more on their performance and less on their academics is a nice way for them to shoot them selves in the foot. It takes only one injury or one rejection to crush a athletes future. More years in college can improve an athlete's skills, help the athlete pursue a career after sports, and improve their maturity.

There are many players who listen to the hype of commentators talking about how great they could be and that they would make a great lottery pick in the upcoming draft. But in reality, undergraduates need to stay in school and work with their coaches to practice the fundamentals of the game, so by the time they do enter into the draft their skills are to the level of the pros. These players don’t take into account that they are currently playing against other college students and that when they reach the league, they will be playing against professionals, not students, so staying in school prepares them better.

College athletes also risk not finding jobs if they go pro too early and don’t succeed at the next level. Once a player gets hurt or becomes a bust, he has nothing to rely on but a high school education. It's hard to find a job with just a high school degree. According to the NPR only about 21 percent of current N.B.A. players have undergraduate degrees. These players are looking to succeed in life, the easy way. That is a good idea but they also need to find another source of...