One Way to Keep NCAA DI Athletes from Leaving School Early to Turn Pro

Rob Naddelman: Through a Parent’s Eyes

This blog is a little off topic from my usual posts, but this is an idea I have had for long time. I wanted to get it out and see what people think.

A big dilemma in college sports (especially in NCAA Division I football and basketball) is how to keep more underclass players in college and have them resist the temptation to turn professional. When underclass players leave school early it causes recruiting turmoil for the college programs because the coach needs to shift gears and replace a highly talented player before they were slated to graduate. It makes the overall recruiting strategy much more difficult to manage because every year the coach needs to project who might have a big year and may elect to turn pro instead of finishing school.

The college programs have a lot of potential revenue to lose when these types of athletes leave school early. Bowl games in football and NCAA Final Four games generate millions of dollars for the college program. If they lose their best players to the draft before they graduate, it could cause the program to regress, and miss out on these national events with high revenue streams.

For the player, the decision to leave early is a juggling act of risk versus reward. One side of the argument is that you never know when injury will strike (especially in football) and if you have the chance to leave and turn pro, you should because it may not be there down the road. The flip side of the argument is that if you leave early without a college degree, and your pro career doesn’t pan out as planned, you may be unprepared to navigate the greater world at large.

So what could the NCAA do to try and keep more kids in school and make it easier on all three constituents (players, coaches, and school programs)? Here is my idea. It may sound off the wall at first, but if you really think about it, I think you might agree that it makes sense. The idea is to put the players on a vesting schedule that pays them a share of the individual sports program’s revenue from TV, licensing, ticket sales, etc AFTER they have graduated from the program.

So here is how it would work: if you are making satisfactory progress towards graduation after one year in school, you are fully vested for a ¼ share. By the end of 4 years you would have a maximum of 1 full share (ie: ¼ share x 4 years). The NCAA would calculate the revenue generated from the program over that 4 year period and pay the graduate out pro-rata for their 1 share. How much this equals would vary year to year depending upon the success of the program, but the number could be pretty significant when you consider how much money the head coaches of these top level programs are paid. I would also suggest that they enter into a licensing agreement as part of the indivdual’s vesting schedule so as to allow college athlete names to be sold on the backs of basketball and football jerseys. Again, this money would only be paid to the athlete in a pro rata fashion if they were vested, and if they graduated. How much more money could the college programs generate with this type of licensing deal? Think about what fans would have paid to have a Reggie Bush named jersey from USC or a Vince Young named jersey from Texas?

To me, this provides the type of incentive that is needed to keep athletes in school and give them a chance to earn money at least in the neighborhood of what they might earn if they turned professional. It also wouldn’t jeopardize their amateur status because they would not earn the money unless they graduated and were vested.

This is just one person’s opinion and you may not agree, but I have yet to hear a better suggestion. In the end, there would be more college graduates and the players would have additional incentive to play their hearts out for a chance to be compensated down the road.


Rob Naddelman is the President of Baseball Factory. Naddelman is a former two-time All Ivy League Third Baseman at the University of Pennsylvania, where he competed in a College World Series Regional. He has served as the President of Baseball Factory for the past 13 years, and also is the Executive Director of Baseball Factory's charitable arm The B.A.S.E. - H.I.T. Foundation. Naddelman and Steve Sclafani (CEO) have been featured in Business Week and CNN for their work in building Baseball Factory into the nation's leader in player development and college placement.