I thought about putting this one in the Casual conversation area since it deals with a sports figure, but I think the underlying question here is worthy of a debate in this forum. For those of you unfamilar with college football and who Vince Young is, I'll lay out a little information for you about him and his current situation the way I see it as the basis for this debate. Some of the premises I'll make might be debatable in a sports bar, but for the purposes of this debate, they are irrelevant. (ie. I don't want this to turn into a football discussion).

Ok, those of you who watched Wednesday night's Rose Bowl game for the national championship between the Univ of Southern California and the Univ of Texas witnessed what I and many others consider the greatest single performance by a football player in the history of college football. Vince Young, quarterback of the Texas Longhorns was absolutely unstoppable and carried a very good Texas team on his back to greatness. I've had the opportunity to watch him play football for the past three years and he's quite simply the best college football player I've ever seen. And, he's a junior in college with another year of eligibility left. Under the rules of the National Football League (professional football), Vince can decide to turn professional this year and make himself eligible for the draft this spring. He only has until 15Jan to decide. If he does decide to turn professional, he would most likely be the first college player taken in the NFL draft this spring, and to add to the equation, his hometown team the Houston Texans just happen to have that first pick. Just to give those of you unfamilar with the NFL an idea, being the first pick is worth HUGE money. From this article, one can see the kind of money a first pick two years ago, Eli Manning, received from the New York Giants......



Vince Young would be looking at a contract worth well over $50 MILLION. He hasn't made his decision yet. He wants to talk with his pastor, his family and his coach at Texas first. On the Jay Leno Show last night, Jay asked him why he would stay for another year at Texas and his response was, "To get a college degree, that's important to my mother." But, he has to consider the risk he might take by playing another year of college football. Career-ending injury, or even a major injury that would drop his value in the draft. If he turns pro now, financially he and his family are set for life. So, my question for debate here is.......






<- UT Marching band




If you were asked by Vince Young for your advice, would you advise him to stay in college for his last year? Or, would you advise him to turn pro and take the money right now? Why?

Take the $$! You can graduate whenever. You have very few opportunities to be the #1 draft pick. His stock couldn't be higher than it is right now and every year he spends in school is a year off of his professional career. He will develop faster in the NFL too as he dominates college ball now.

If you were asked by Vince Young for your advice, would you advise him to stay in college for his last year? Or, would you advise him to turn pro and take the money right now? Why?

As a lover of college sports, I believe most players benefit more by staying in college rather than turning pro early.

In the case of exceptional players, whose future in football is relatively guaranteed, I take the opposite line: turning pro is in their best interest.

A player like Young who scrambles a lot is much more likely to be hurt than a guy like Matt Leinhart, last year's Heismann winner who stayed with USC this year. Young has won the ultimate prize in college football: a national championship.

I'd love to see Young stay at Texas. To me, college sports are on a different level emotionally than the detached game that is pro sports. However, the risk of being hurt is too great and so from a purely cost-benefit standpoint, he should (and I believe he will) turn pro.

(By the way, he may not be the #1 pick. Reggie Bush (who played in a surprisingly limited number of plays at the Rose Bowl) may have that honor as the Texans first pick.

If you were asked by Vince Young for your advice, would you advise him to stay in college for his last year? Or, would you advise him to turn pro and take the money right now? Why?

I firmly believe in the importance of a good education for a decent future, but in this case I would advise Vince to grab the money and go pro. It’s not often that a 22-year old has an opportunity to set himself up for life financially.

Football is a dangerous sport. He could either risk injury playing college ball (where he has accomplished all he can) that could potentially lessen or even ruin his chance at a professional sports career, or go pro now that he’s the hottest thing going, and if he is injured while a pro, well, heck, then he can finish up those classes he needs for his degree while still getting paid the mondo bucks!

However, I did find an interesting case to be made for him to stay in school:

(though the writer does admit, if it’s all about the money, then going pro is the thing to do)

From all of what I’ve read about Vince Young, he seems to be an intelligent, grounded young man with a pretty level head on his shoulders. It will be interesting to see what he decides.

…though I still can’t believe SC let themselves get beat by a buncha TEXANS! Dammit!

College football is my favorite sport and that had to be the best game I’ve ever seen. And Aquilla I would have to agree that we might have witnessed the best individual performance in the history of college football.

Saw Vince on the Jay Leno show last night (his interaction with Will Ferrell was great) and he appears to carry himself off the field as well as he does on it, so my guess is he’ll make the right decision (I thought that was a great response when he said he wants to get his degree because of his mother).

Was looking over draft predictions the other day (before the game) and they had Reggie Bush being picked first and Young being picked sixth. Of course that could change now and I don’t know how much of a dollar difference it would make from your original estimate if he were picked up later in the first round. Needless to say where ever he’s taken in the draft he’ll be banking a lot of money.

He IS the complete package.

I’d tell him to go to the pros for the exact reason you stated: injury. The Longhorns play in a very physical conference and a busted knee, broken throwing arm/wrist could literally cost him millions if not a career.

He can always go back to school and finish his degree. He can make more in four years than most high paying professionals make in a life time.

Go Vince Go!! (to the Raiders!)

Simple risk/reward. Go pro, negotiate as part of your contract an escrow account to cover returning to college.

The money will be even bigger if he waits. The guy is a Monster. His chances of getting hurt are slim.

The contract will be there the following year but you will never win the Heisman as a Pro. The Money is incredible, but a Heisman is a legacy.

Now, that said, if he leaves it would be only good for my beloved Huskers - With Young at UT we have ZERO chance of winning the Big Twelve.

I hate to rain on everybody's parade...but he isn't THAT good. He had an amazing game on national TV and now everyone is saying "Reggie Who?"...Give me a break. He should come to the NFL because his stock couldn't possibly be any higher...But I think he'll be overpaid, overhyped and not very good. He's made his college career by running around and over smaller, slower players...He's not running over anyone in the NFL and he's certainly not blowing by many linebackers. I haven't seen much of him but I would like to see just how good of a quarterback he is [throwing wise]. I think he might be able to be better than Mike Vick [who, in my opinion, is a HORRIBLE QB...he simply cannot throw the ball with any accuracy]...so as I said, go for the cash...but he will not be a very good NFL football player and I don't want the Jets to draft him.

CP

Who are you talking about?

3000 yards passing - 1050 yards running. In the Big Twelve? And beats a team with not 1, but 2 Heisman Trophy winners, on USC's home field, AND does it with class!

Sorry Pat, this guy IS that good!

Well, first of all...The Big XII was not very good this year. Second, my point remains that while he may be able to get away with his style of play in the NCAA, he won't in the NFL. I don't think he'll be able to run very effectively in the NFL and that will allow teams to make him beat them passing [much like they're doing with Vick], which I am not sure that he can...As I said, I'd easily enter the draft if I was him, but I don't expect great things.

CP

Just as a point of fact, the 2 Heisman winners on USC's team say little about Young's abilities as a quarterback. Now, if one were a linebacker, and the other a defensive back, then beating them would give be of value. As it is, all we know from the game is that, because it was a high scoring offensive shootout, Young and the Texans were relatively better against the USC defense than the Trojans with 2 Heismann winners were against the Texan defense.

Redliner makes a good point about waiting. I'd be curious to see what the estimated differential is between coming out early vs. staying in.

That is a good point Bikerdad. I checked the final Defensive stats for 2005 and USC was somewhere in the Middle 30's in total defense and Texas #10.

Still, USC had 2 effective running backs to 0 for Texas. The difference in the game was clearly Mr. Young.

Consider also that he is just a Junior. A Junior, playing in a major conference that passed for 3000 yds and ran for 1000.

Those are amazing Stats for anyone in any league, but in a tough defensive conference, those numbers are incredible. He reminds me of a cross between Michael Vick and Daunte Cullpepper.

First, I noticed that many who posted here cite potential injury as the reason to go pro now. This can be easily mitigated by purchasing insurance against such a thing. Lloyd's carries such insurance, and has provided it for athletes in similar circumstances. Sure, it's not cheap, but getting a loan to cover it is fairly easy. After all...the loan is covered either way. No injury, Vince gets big bux...get injured, and the insurance pays off the loan.

That being said, I've always wondered why so many people out there decry athletes who leave school early to go pro. I have no doubt that these same people would tell anyone else in college, an engineer for example, who turned down a multimillion dollar contract to stay in school that they were a complete idiot. I have no idea why the occupation of athlete changes the mindset, but it often seems to.

I don't think Vince would be the number one pick this year. Houston has that pick, and already has a quarterback. I don't know where after that Bush would fall...but most years there is a fair drop-off in salary from the first pick. I don't think money will be the deciding factor in Young's decision, though. He strikes me as somebody who realizes he'll be set regardless. So, it will be other factors that make up his mind. First, whether he thinks another year of college ball will improve his skills (most analysts say it would). Second, how strongly he feels about coming back to see if he could help Texas earn a second national championship (although he just saw how that worked out for Lienart). Personally...I think he'll stay, although I have doubts now. As some here have stated...he just had the performance of a lifetime. Hard to go anywhere but down after that. My personal advice would be to do whatever he really wanted to do. If that was stay and play another year in college...wonderful. If that was to leave and go pro....hard to fault that decision. Just do whichever you think will leave you with no regrets. That last year of college would probably be very special. Lienart chose to go that route, and I haven't heard anyone say he made the wrong decision. The money will come. In the grand scheme of things, whether you make $95 million or $100 million over the course of your career really wouldn't change anything, would it? What is it you can do with $100 million that you can't do with $95? Who knows...if he stays in college, it might up his value in the draft, leading to higher career earnings, not lower. In which case, he'd get to have his cake, and eat it too.

Enter the NFL draft, don't hire an agent. As long as he doesn't accept money or hire an agent, he can enter the draft, make sure he goes as high as everyone seems to think, and then make a decision. Don't negotiate with ANYONE. If he doesn't go #1 or #2, go back to college. THEN go #1 or #2. If he doesn't suffer a MAJOR injury, he'll go no lower than he would this year. If he does suffer a MAJOR injury, he is still draftable, and he'll have a degree to fall back on. Who wants to be the next Icky Woods????

I have never heard of the "Young Bowl". This year is the "Bush Bowl". No shame in having more fun and waiting for YOUR year!

I think CP has a point here. The reason Young has to go pro now is that after that performance his stock will never be higher. I watch a lot of Texas games this season and Young is their best player, but I'm not sure he's a great as the hype right now. Texas and USC had great offenses, but lackluster defenses. It is not that surprising that Young had such a great game against the soft USC defense.

Vince Young’s stock can only go down by playing another season and he risks injury by going pro. Texas could very well lose early next season to a much improved Ohio State team that how their own emerging star at QB. If that were to happened it would change all the hype.

Being a Longhorns fan after growing up in Austin for 18 years and watching him in high school (we beat his team in state playoffs, oh yeah) I can see how he's improved. He used to be (and still is mainly) a runner with an accurate and strong arm. He's the size of a linebacker with wide receiver speed, but can also throw the ball. Overall I think he could do quite well in the NFL, and he may not be a quarterback (he might be something like Kordell Stewart, aka "slash", because he played so many positions). I think the same thing can be said of Reggie Bush. He's a receiver, punt/kickoff returner, and a running back. Simply put, I think either player can, and will, play a number of positions because of their size and speed.

So should he stay or go? I would like to see him stay and win another championship, duh. But also, I think if he stayed he could develop more as a quarterback. Right now it seems like if he can't read a defense or isn't quite sure what to do he'll just run and good things will happen. That doesn't always fly in the NFL. But if he stays an extra year then he'll be able to study more as a throwing quarterback and sharpen his skills at that position. The good thing about him now as a QB is that he's in the top 10 in passing percentage in college football. He hits the slot receiver or running back a lot and doesn't have to throw it away as much since he can run around anyone (and slip off anyone too, he must grease himself up before the games). So another year in college could help him become more of a finesse passer with a dangerous running game.

On the flip side is $$$$$$$$$$. The best plan I heard was from Hobbes:



This seems like the easiest way to solve the problem. It's no lose as far as I can tell.

Overall I would tell Vince to be cool and stay in school. It couldn't hurt him (if he takes out that insurance policy) and could help him to gain more experience; and that other missing piece of hardware: The Hiesman.



Side Note: In high school Vince was decent, but the best player by far to beat our team (in the state championship) was Reggie McNeal, who played for Lufkin. He played offense (QB), defense, and Special teams. He was probably in 60-70% of the plays during the game and almost single handedly beat us (Westlake High). He since went to Texas A&M and has hardly been heard of even though he's almost exactly the same style player, and many considered him to be a much better passer. Think Donovan McNabb, except faster.

Not surprisingly, it looks as if Vince Young made the decision to go pro. Can't say I blame him, with the kind of money being offered.

I find it kind of humorous, in an ironic sort of way, that his hometown will likely pick Reggie Bush. Funny how things work.