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What's wrong with wanting to make money and taking care of your family? If this guy can do that by playing basketball, more power to him.

Sure, he should take advantage of the opportunities at hand and prepare himself for a career beyond basketball. But if he can become an instant millionaire by going pro, that hardly makes him less noble than a four-year player with a degree.

I get a little tired of the snobbery that comes from college basketball fans. It's an extension of the ivory tower mentality - that college-educated people somehow are better than blue-collar folks.

Folks, making money is the bottom line for the colleges. That's why they play these games. It's hypocritical to expect more from these kids, many of whom grew up poor. If I was 20 years old and could rescue my family from poverty by leaving school and signing a pro contract, I'd do it without hestitation.

js, I want to be clear: I wish him success in professional basketball. I just hope that's not all he's been preparing for. He's been wise to stay in school for four years.

I'm guessing Tyler Hansbrough, Brandon Wright, Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington won't stick around that long. I can't fault them if they leave early, although a national championship before they move on would be nice.

The operative fact you point up, Doug, is that he has been attending on a large publicly-funded scholarship. Couldn't the taxpayers logically expect a repayment of said monies if a student chooses to stop attending, as opposed to trying his/her best and failing, nonetheless?

As for getting ahead through academics: the percent of people climbing the socio-economic ladder to significant heights by virtue of specifically a liberal arts education has dropped in the past twenty or thirty years. Specialization in technical or professional fields seems the better bet for making plenty more. the other option, floated like a delusional carrot before thousands of talented but not superstar-status young men is to "major" in sports.

No, there's no shame in working or blue-collar careers; but increasingly, those are disappearing and employers (other than service industry) want people with higher mathematical and science-related skills, strong problem-solvers, and those with polished interpersonal abilities. There's also a demand for people with knowledge of other cultures and multiple languages (the liberal arts' saving grace).

Yes, this boy has every right to try to make a hefty dollar as fast as he cares to, as an athlete's career is often quite brief. But I agree with Doug's lament that we are losing many more to dropping out or moving on than we'd like. If more made a career from their degrees, it would send a message to the vaster number of only mediocre players to find passion in things beyond ballgames alone.

I completely agree, Jim, but I'm not sure the fault lies mainly with the players. The colleges are the main culprits here - they've promoted basketball and football as big-time, big-money entertainment.

As we saw with last night's NCAA Championship game, college sports are no different than professional athletics - only the players aren't paid for their services.

A top-level basketball program brings in millions of dollars every year and it becomes a case of the tail wagging the dog at every university in Division I. Roy Williams and Coach K are paid enough to hire a dozen or more English or math professors. Star players are treated like royalty at nearly every university.

Given the system that the universities themselves have created, it seems unreasonable to expect 20-year-olds, many of them poor, to focus on getting a degree, rather than chase the dream of going pro.

Jim, I don't think anyone is suggesting that Reyshawn Terry or any Carolina athlete is not attending class. As for any athlete who does stop attending, replayment of scholarship funds would be problematic. Lots of students stop attending for whatever reason. All state residents who attend UNC system schools have their tuition heavily subsidized by the taxpayers. None is asked to repay the state for failing to earn a degree.

I agree there is a lot that's wrong with college athletics. What's right is that athletes do have an opportunity to get an education -- and many of them take advantage of that opportunity. Before last night's game, I was happy to see that several players were recognized by the TV announcers for their academic achievements.

On a related note, Calvin Johnson, the Georgia Tech football player, announced he's leaving early to enter the NFL draft. He's an outstanding student who has participated in an important development project in South America and is in line to receive a patent for a new design for a sanitary latrine - not an insignificant advance in the Third World.

I meant, if he stops attending by dropping out.

I am also always curious as to the rigor of the courses attended.

I agree, the salaries for many coaches (albeit successful at winning...though some get big pay for losing seasons, too) are outrageous and merely demonstrate to all concerned what the real priorities of said college paying them are. Our society puts its highest almost ethical (or some might even say psuedo-religious!) value on that which is most remunerated. Thus, there is no surprise if students themselves follow suit (and I mean suit...ever notice how they dress lock-step in the same uniform OFF the court/field? One wonders if there's a free-thinker among them) and how a sizable number might treat academic courses, especially the liberal arts and humanities, as irrelevant to their career ambitions?

This then is contagious as student-athletes are often the very people setting the pace and tone of how subjects and practices of study and participation are enjoined (or not) on campus. Students in general, then, often may reflect the less-academic attitude of "who cares (about a specific class) if it isn't a sport" or, analogously, taught in a "sporty", fun way. Not that there hasn't always been an honored tradition of blowing off academic work on college campuses, with or without sports. Strangely, though, the most elite schools usually have fairly mediocre teams (Duke is an exception). In Europe, of course, no university has any big-time sports program. The Sorbonne, Oxford and Heidelberg all graduate their share of real good students. Come to think of it, the "high schools" there also do not have school-sponsored teams that play other schools. And many of those countries, along with several in Asia, have 15-18 year-olds surpassing most American sophomores or juniors in our colleges.

Plus, it's tough enough to get ANY young person to bone up, open up and discuss things in a critically-observant way; when classes have to "compete" with sports, it gets doubly tough.

All that said, I have known hundreds of fine student-athletes. It helps, actually, not to be at a Division I school. The less a student might think they could turn pro, I expect the more they throw themselves into learning everything they can while gaining their degree. I do lament the fact our whole culture, however, has debased education for its own sake, and now demands some kind of eventual "pay-off" in dollars and cents for any potential class taken...or offered! I understand the pressure to justify the huge outlays of money and massive student loan "replayment" hanging over the heads of graduates (and non-graduates, alas); but the very spirit of education is premised on a wide-ranging love of learning and desire to sate one's curiosity...and still be left wanting more.