The other morning I was watching a story on CNN about college drop out rates among NCAA athletes. They had suggested that they were too high and something needed to be done. One of the suggestions on the table was penalizing schools that didn’t meet a certain quota as far as keeping their athletes in school.

While I realize education is important, I think the idea of penalizing a school for their athlete dropout rates is one of the most ridiculous I’ve ever heard. Top caliber athletes have a lot of opportunities that most of us don’t have. Some may go to the Olympics, while others eventually go professional. These opportunities should not be taken lightly and I know this seems wrong to say it, but they shouldn’t let a college education get in the way.

I do believe everyone should get a college education, but my thought is college will always be there. Let’s take the phenom basketball player who comes from a lower middle class family. They don’t have a lot of money so they must rely on the scholarship that is handed to them for playing basketball. Lets say this basketball player is projected to go 10th overall in the first round of the NBA draft after only 1 year of college. A lot of people may say to stay and finish college, there is plenty of time for basketball. I disagree. If the player is that good to go that high in the draft and have a guaranteed contract, he should go for it.

If he goes for it and is a huge success, he is an instant millionaire and is set for life. If he wants to, he can go to college after he retires or during the off season. If he fails at playing basketball he still has that guaranteed money which he can probably live off for a great while and use to pay for a top notch education.

Lets say this same athlete stays in college where one of three things could happen. Number one, he could play out his college days and become an even better basketball player and eventually and even better NBA player. Number two, his skills could decrease and perhaps he drops down to a second round pick or is not drafted and ends up in the d-league. Finally there is the third option. He gets injured on a freak accident and never gets a chance to play ball and is now stuck footing the bill for his education since he cannot contribute to the basketball team any longer.

So my thought is, why not drop out? College isn’t going anywhere. You won’t have a harder time with college as you get older; if anything the maturity and wisdom you gain will make it easier later in life. You can only be a top caliber athlete for so long before your body starts to shut down. In my opinion if you have the chance to make millions of dollars, but it means putting off college for a few years, so be it. Go take advantage of the wonderful gift that God gave you and get that education once that gift goes away.