Should College Football Players Leave Early for the NFL?

Would you turn down a chance to make millions of dollars playing a game that you love? I know I wouldn't. However, many people still don't understand why a college football player would enter the NFL draft before they get their degree. The main point of going to college is to get a high paying job. These athletes are just taking a less traditional path than most of us to achieve that.

NFL salaries range from millions of dollars a year to a minimum of around 300,000 dollars. So even on the low-end player's make very good salaries, but the players who enter the NFL draft early are generally not on the low end of the salary scale. College football players who enter the draft before they graduate are often the best players in the country. They are advised (heavily I'm sure) on how high of a NFL draft pick they would be, and simply put that translates into money. The higher a draft pick they are, the more money they will make.

Most players who enter the NFL draft before they graduate sign multi-million dollar contracts and receive signing bonuses that normally range in the millions. This is money that the normal college graduate can't even dream of making before they even graduate. So why would these players value an education more than playing in the NFL? Believe me I would go straight to the NFL the instant I thought I could make even 1 million dollars. The money most of these high draft picks receive is easily enough to last a lifetime, an education is great but these players don't need it to succeed in life.

There are two other big issues why college players should enter the NFL draft if they are going to be a high draft pick, injuries and a NFL rookie signing cap. The injury factor is an obvious one, if a college football player is presumed to be a high draft pick and decides to go back to school he could get injured and devalue himself to the NFL. Football is an injury prone sport and a career ending injury is even a possibility to college football players, an injury that could cost them the ability to make millions. The other issue that has been floating around the NFL for some time is putting a cap (upper limit) on the amount of money that rookies can get paid. So in the near future college players entering the NFL draft may have a limit on what they will get paid, right now there is no limit and rookies are often among the highest paid players in the league.

Granted for many college athletes staying in school to get an education is a good idea, but for star college football players it could be a choice that will cost them millions. These athletes know approximately how high they will get taken in the NFL draft. They weigh the decision if they can increase their value by returning to school or to cash in and go to the NFL. Remember a long NFL career is 15 years, so every year they stay in school is one less year to make a lot of money. A short career also means they will have plenty of time to return to school to get their education when they are through playing football. Now don't get me wrong I loved college and I'm sure the college football players love it as well, but when there is the chance to make more money than most of us dream of it's time to leave.