Choosing Career Over College
By Adam de Jong, Daily Bruin, September 25, 2005

More players from different sports are leaving school early to play for pros. While the NCAA may portray the statistics as being slightly better than they really are, many coaches and players at the collegiate level concede that the increased national exposure of the Olympic sports has provided more career opportunities to student-athletes in a wide range of sports that were once considered “secondary”.

Among them are women’s golf and men’s soccer, which takes us to Chad Barrett and Grace Park as prime examples of athletes who chose professional leagues/tour over college, and college over the professional leagues/tour. Park won the 2004 Women’s Amateur Championship as a high school senior, no small feat to be sure. Her booming success as a minor led her to flirt with the idea of turning pro without ever stepping foot inside a college classroom.

The next few years might dictate whether the trend in Olympic sports continues with more players leaving school early, or whether there is a shift towards student-athletes staying in school to obtain degrees. Sports has always been a copycat system, and how many more players opt out of school may very well depend on the level of success Freddy Adu or Michelle Wie experience.

Full article can be seen at http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/news/articles.asp?id=34196