What do Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, Babe Ruth, Wayne Gretzky and Muhammad Ali all have in common? Yes, they are all known as the best at what they do, but not a single one of them ever attended college. Although all athletes are very successful in their professional career and will most likely never actually need a post secondary degree. Many will eventually attend college and get their college diploma. Whenever I think of people who attended college, in hopes to seek their degree, is Larry Fitzgerald (watch University of Phoenix commercials on Youtube). After not finishing college at the University of Pittsburgh, he finished his college career at the University of Phoenix. It was a online class, so it worked well with being in the NFL at the same time. My three main points are, my two opinions on why athletes shouldn’t be required to attend college and the downside for athletes of letting them go straight pro.

Athletes should be aloud to be drafted into the NFL and NBA right out of high school. The first reason why I believe in this is because so many young talents are able to be successful at the highest stage. They would also have to waste a lot of money on attending all those classes when they could be making money doing what they love. It is also a waste of time for the athletes, because they don’t want to be there, so they would be gaining useless information that they wouldn’t use later in their life. If the athlete is able to manage his money wisely he will be able to live a very easy life if he decides to end his career. To put it into perspective, Professional athletes make more money in one year than many of us will make in our entire lives. Kobe Bryant’s rookie salary was 3.5 million dollars.

Another reason why athletes shouldn’t be required a year of college to go pro, is the huge risk of suffering a injury and in some cases a career ending injury. There are two athletes who were having very successful careers in college football, only to be ended by a injury. The first athlete is, running back, Marcus Lattimore. According to Sports Illustrated he was destined for greatness at the highest level until a game against Tennessee. The South Carolina running back took a gruesome blow to the knee and his career was forever tampered with. He held many records for the Gamecock’s football program, like most running yards as a rookie and career touchdowns. A article written by cbs sports was about a great athlete who is also the second athlete on my list, that lost a great chance to make it big, his name is Tyrone Prothro. The Alabama wide receiver suffered a horrific leg injury that ended his career. Both of these athletes had a great opportunity to make it big and compete at the highest level. Both injuries would have been most likely avoided if they went straight pro. Even if the injury came in their first five years they would still be sitting on a huge amount of money. All in all, the risk that college sports present is too great for athletes already prepared for the professional level.

On the other hand, it would be almost impossible to pay all of the athletes that would try to be making it to the professional level. The big names people hear today would be taking huge contract cuts. Also college basketball would would be broken all together. With other sports sticking to that college requirement, if one sport broke that rule there would be even more controversy. Many athletes would be able to take advantage of the extra year to get better at their sport, but others would get into bad habits (Not working out, drugs, bad sleeping and staying off schedule etc…), And that would basically end their careers at the highest level.

All in all, I think that the athletes that will be able to succeed at the highest should be able to spread their talent at that level, and earn some money along the way. Many athletes have proved that they can be insanely successful at the professional level without college sports. My two opinions are great examples of why athletes should go straight pro and the downside of allowing many athletes to go straight pro. There are large benefits and large risks with both options, but I feel that athletes should have the right to choose either of the options.