>>>What I honestly don't get is why the top collegians rush to the NBA. What's wrong with being a BMOC? Everything is provided for you, every last thing. The pro money will still be there for you in a year or two. I hope John Wall returns to Kentucky next year to complete unfinished business.
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>>I agree with you, but I think for many of these kids, it's a matter of not being particularly good students and the money making a huge difference in their lives and the lives of their families.
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>>I think with basketball, you couldn't really do what I'm about to propose, but I bet you can still with baseball. It would be interesting to do a little research to see if there's any correlation between which kids sign with a major league team right out of high school and which go to college first, and the family's socio-economic status. My hypothesis is that the higher the family status a priori, the more likely to go to college first.
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>Could be. It's hard to say because pre-pro baseball is so much less high profile than pre-pro basketball. Usually there is no way of knowing how good baseball players are. Sports Illustrated had a recent article about catchers, focusing on the kid the Orioles have, detailing the careers of catchers drafted high. A complete crap shoot. For every star like Johnny Bench or Thurman Munson there is a guy who never made the majors or had the proverbial cup of coffee.

And ISTR that in Moneyball, Michael Lewis suggested that it's a lot easier to predict once kids go to college than right out of high school.

Tamar